Urban design focus on urban renewal: A case study of Barbaros neighborhood in Atasehir

Urban renewal is an improvement effort to adapt physical areas that have lost their old identity and function to today's social and economic needs using contemporary and technological approaches. Urban areas where problems such as deindustrialization, globalization, slums, poverty and deprivation, earthquakes, unplanned urbanization, and lack of urban services are observed in developed or developing countries need renewal. Contrary to popular belief, urban renewal is not just about renewing a building. A successful urban renewal project is a multidimensional process designed to create healthy, high-quality, livable cities and urban areas by assessing the physical, socioeconomic, and legal dimensions of the areas and applying one or more of the urban renewal methods appropriate to the existing area to find solutions for the areas to be renewed over time. The design dimension of urban renewal is one of the essential dimensions for projects. Renewal is an action that should be addressed to a large extent in the context of urban design. Urban design guides, one of the tools to implement an urban design, play an important role in the healthy development of cities. The guides, which are effectively used worldwide, have not yet been implemented in Turkey, so similar and unqualified buildings have appeared in most Turkish cities. However, it is known that efforts have been made in recent years to encourage local governments to create their guides under the guidance of the relevant ministries. As the study area, the slum area of Barbaros neighborhood located in Ataşehir district, on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, was examined. The reason why this area was selected as the study area is that it is foreseen that it will undergo urban renewal soon. In this context, the study area's current socio-economic and physical condition has been determined based on the field investigations and user surveys made by the municipality to form a base for the urban renewal project planned to be implemented in the Barbaros neighborhood. The problems, observations, and survey results identified in the area were compiled, proposals for application were presented, and a design guide was prepared.