A cultural route proposal in the context of the continuity of urban memory: Bursa industrial heritage route

Bursa is one of the cities that has social, cultural, physical and morphological urban identity components together. Being the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, having a geographical figure as Mount Uludağ, locating near the Marmara Sea, having close relations with İstanbul, having been developed around the historical city centre on the east-west axis are some of them. In the 19th century, last period of the Ottoman Empire, industrialization activities in Bursa started with sericulture and production of silk fabric. Industrialization activities were developed with the inclusion of different sectors in production through government assistance and private enterprise efforts, in the early years of Turkish Republic. Establishment of the first Organized Industrial Zone of Turkey in Bursa, caused the city to gain an industrial city identity also. Bursa, where industrialization movements played a major role in the urbanization process and their traces were observed, comprises valuable amount of industrial heritage that consist of industrial buildings and areas actively used today, as well as the ones which are adaptive re-used or idle. The focus of this thesis is the industrial heritage assets of Bursa in the context of continuity of urban identity and urban memory. The heritage dated between the construction of Mudanya Custom and Station Building which can be considered as the beginning of industrial activities in the city and the establishment of Oyak Renault Automobile Factory which is the most important industrial building in the formation of Bursa Organized Industrial Zone is discussed. The purpose, scope and method of the thesis are explained in the introduction part. In the second part, where the theoretical background of the study is based on, the interrelations of urban memory with urban identity, cultural heritage, industrial buildings and cultural routes are searched. In this context, cultural and industrial route examples in our country and in the World are analysed. In the third part of the thesis, a fieldwork is carried out to determine if industrial heritage is one of the elements of urban space that plays a decisive role in urban identity is included in urban memory. The data obtained from the fieldwork is presented in the findings. Regarding the findings, Bursa industrial heritage route proposal is developed in the context of the continuity of urban memory.