Conservation and revitalization strategies of historic city centers: The search for an integrated model for Balbey

Historic city centers are areas of cultural heritage value that form the core of cities. The existence and sustainability of these historical environments, contributes to the identities of cities that are increasingly similar to each other in the globalizing world, with their original values. Especially with the increasing rate of urbanization after the 1980s, these areas have been under the pressure of construction. They have entered the process of change in spatial, social, cultural and economic terms. In the historical city centers, the conservation problems experienced in these processes and the "revitalization" approach as a form of intervention have been examined in the study. As a case area, Antalya Balbey Neighborhood has been examined in the context of being a part of a historical city center and aiming to reveal the run-down process it has experienced. Spatial, economic and socio-cultural dynamics of Balbey are revealed in the research. As a result of the research, although the level of protection is low at the building scale, it has been determined that the original urban historical texture in the area still has potential for revitalization works. In this context, a proposal to improve it with "social injection-assisted revitalization", which is a soft method, has been developed.