Recidence politics which were examined in İstanbul metropolitan area and practising its effects on Levent region

Istanbul which owns the radical past, is one of the metropolitan cities of the world with notonly social and cultural and economical ways but also urban features. Since it was founded asa colony city,it has developed; at the same time it became the capital city for two empires. Inthe first years of Turkish Republic, the city entered a period of slowing down on itsdevelopment with Ankara's being the capital city of Turkey.However, it moved on developingwith the help of its position and features in latter years.Migration which started from rural places to big cities in 1950s, led to the great difficultiesabout residence in the city, but, people who migrated overcame their residence problem bybuilding shanties in surroundings of the city. At the same term, Emlak Kredi Bankası decidedto build the social purposed residence in Levent region and planning study of the first LeventDistrict was started in 1947 and in addition to this, similar examples of those buildings in theworld were investigated in their own places before the planning. After that, this planningstudy followed a period of completing its projects and construction. The first district wasdemanded intensively because of its facilities and easiness which the district provided. As aresult, the other Levent districts were built.As the time passed, many things changed in Istanbul urban area and the city went on growingin every direction. Planning decisions in the process of the city growth, the bosporus bridgeswhich were built, surrounding roads and central work area which directed the north and thecondensation of skyscrapers in Levent region began to cause the changes in the districtstructure.Houses which were built as a social residence, were used by an upper economical class in1970s and it has become one of the luxurious districts of Istanbul in 1990s. At the same time,by changing the usage of residence, it has been prefered for the aim of using as work places,offices and trading. In this point, physical changes were done in Levent buildings and settinghas obtained a new identity different from as it had in 1950s.In this study, fixing and analysis of Levent district were done in the frame of the subjectwhich is mentioned above. In thesis, Istanbul was studied from general to special features ofLevent district with deductive method; and then investigation on the first Levent district wascompleted by giving examples and results brought out.For the area study, the first Leventdistrict was taken as a basic subject due to the reasons such as being the area which is firstlyand mostly affected by environmental factors. As a conclusion, according to this subject, theultimate goal of the thesis is to manifest today's situation of Levent and its socio-cultural lifeand last usage ways of the residence.Key Words: Metropolitan Concept, Istanbul Metropolitan Area, Levent Districtxiii