A dialectical reading of r-urban settlement patterns in urban peripheries: Istanbul-Cekmekoy

Today, rural areas have transformed under the pressure of urbanization, leading to a change in rural-urban spatial relations; this has led to a gradual blurring of the boundaries between rural and urban areas. With the disappearance of clear distinctions between rural and urban areas, a new relationship between rural and urban has appeared. The increased interaction and proximity between rural and urban areas have created a basis for rethinking the rural-urban duality and reassessing the relationship between cities and nature. Multidimensional processes such as modernism, globalization, economy, and technology, as well as crises like pandemics and disasters, have further blurred the rural-urban boundaries. In the case of Istanbul, particularly after 1980, globalization, neoliberalism, and industrialization policies have accelerated the development and transformation of rural areas, reshaping rural-urban relationships. These changes create intermediate spaces where the boundaries are blurred by revealing the situation of the rural within the urban and the urban within the rural. From this point of view, the main purpose of the thesis research is to examine the appearances of the increasing rural-urban interaction on the peripheries of Istanbul in the settlement patterns of intermediate spaces. It aims to rethink the potentials of this new settlement pattern, defined as 'R-Urban', as a space of movement, encounter and experience. In the thesis research, the interaction scheme and conceptual relationships developed with a transformational and dialectical perspective were examined based on quantitative and qualitative data, using historical readings, mapping showing the current situation, and representation tools such as photography and collage. The rural-urban situation was conceptualized on Istanbul and the focus was on Cekmekoy, which developed on the periphery of the city and whose rural and urban boundaries became blurred. The potential of thresholds, intermediate and hybrid spaces, which are revealed by the blurring of rural-urban boundaries in Cekmekoy's settlement patterns, are discussed. Cekmekoy, as an area where socio-spatial dualities are experienced, shows that oppositions such as segregation/mixture, diversity/uniformity, natural/man-made, fragmented/holistic, construction/destruction in settlement patterns offer potential for the harmonious development of 'R-Urban' life. Therefore, rural-urban intersections; It carries important potential in terms of planning natural resources, renewing nature-human-space relations, production practices and ensuring ecological resilience. In order to increase the city's resilience against future multi-crises, effective resource use, a healthy social environment, a production-consumption network and a symbiotic rural-urban relationship should be established. In this regard, socio-cultural, economic and ecological systems should be strengthened, a dynamic interaction should be ensured in which vulnerabilities will be reduced, and rural-urban intersections that renew the city and support its adaptation capacity should be reconsidered.