Residential architectural change after Istanbul Levent of 2005 case

The issue of `accommodation?, forming a significant part of architectural discussions, is highly important as it is directly related with day-to-day life. Facing accommodation problems since the first ages, humanbeings have tried to give meaning to their relations with their environs through their housing areas, among other things. Within this framework, today?s housing areas, too, bring about a variety of changes in human life. Especially housing units built since 2000 not only provided people with a different architecture but also brought about a new lifestyle.This study discusses the buildings constructed as housing units in district of Levent with reference to planning decisions and regional realities within the framework of findings and analyses based on aspects of investment, design, technics, business, location-transportation-social environment. Moreover, some housing units sampled ramdomly in district of Levent which still remains a popular housing area have been analyzed.Part one clarifies purposes and and scope of the study.Part two discusses history and development of housing buildings in Istanbul, giving examples of the surviving ones, and deals with the issue of emergence of Loft concept giving a modern housing definition in line with user preferences and, finally, describes effects of Loft buildings on life quality.Part three deals with the fact that Istanbul urban area has, as time went by, gone through changes and the city has continued to grow towards all directions. So, this part discusses planning decisions made during the process of city?s expansion, bosphorus bridges built, ring roads, expansion of central business area to the north and concentration of skycrappers in District of Levent, as well as changes all this have brought about in the district?s structure.Part four outlines findings and analyses conducted on the Buyukdere axis selected as place of field research in district of Levent; identifying types of housing units determined on the field, as well as current changes, as accompanied by tables and figures.