The seventh seminar of the “Istanbul Urban Studies” seminar series organized by Istanbul Medeniyet University Urban and Regional Planning Department was held online on May 31, 2021. The seminar titled “İstanbul’daki Büyük Ölçekli Projelerin Ekonomik ve Mekansal Coğrafyası” (Economic and Spatial Geography of Large-Scale Projects in Istanbul) was presented by Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK, a research assistant of our Urban and Regional Planning Department, and moderated by Assoc.Dr. Aysu UĞURLAR from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University. In the seminar, the economic and spatial geography of mega-projects, which have become the most important tools of Istanbul’s economic globalization process, was opened for discussion.
During the seminar, ÇELİKBİLEK first described the intended use of large-scale projects in the process of urban renewal and economic development by referring to the economic and political circumstances leading to large-scale urban projects. She stated that especially after 1970, with the effect of economic globalization, the usual transformation processes of cities began to change, and cities started to be designed and marketed according to the wishes of tourists and foreign development investments. She pointed out that megaprojects are the most important tools of this process. She also mentioned the mega projects and flagship projects as large-scale projects and explained the types of such projects, their main features, their effects on urban space and the reason why they are preferred as an urban policy.
ÇELİKBİLEK stated that although mega projects are mostly handled with their physical and spatial dimensions, their definitions are basically based on cost, and are defined as million-dollar projects and projects with much higher costs. She pointed out that the features of the projects such as land use, design difficulties, and the use of technological product innovations increase these costs even more. For this reason, she pointed out that such projects – especially public infrastructure projects – are produced through private financing systems such as public private partnerships and sponsorship agreements.
Later on, ÇELİKBİLEK presented the results of her study in which she compared 78 large scale urban projects according to various criteria such as economic features, design, process, management style, and multidimensional structure. In the light of these, she discussed the possible transforming effects of the projects on the planning process of İstanbul and urban texture. She first examined the economic landscape of the projects and said that the total cost of these 78 projects was 145 billion dollars. Stating that these projects will attract a high population to the city, she pointed out that the job creation power of the projects corresponds to only 7% of this population. When viewed from a spatial perspective, she stated that although land use starts with the conversion of abandoned areas left over from industry, large-scale projects are spreading to lands outside the city center in Istanbul. She stated that the urban development spreading especially towards the forest areas and protected areas to the north of the city is seen as a conflict between human settlements and wildlife, and that many projects in this regard face public opposition.
ÇELİKBİLEK included different and global examples of large-scale projects in her presentation and evaluated the cases in Istanbul and European/USA cases by comparing their similarities, differences and their effects on economic, political, social and spatial structures.
The seminar that attracted broad participation was ended by a q/a session. In response to the questions, ÇELİKBİLEK referred to the potentially prominent projects in Istanbul which may trigger a regional transformation and she reviewed whether these projects are similar to their counterparts in Ankara and Izmir. She also made a further review to handle the socio-spatial impacts of projects and evaluated the planning processes for large-scale projects like the 3rd Airport Project, Canal Istanbul and the 3rd Bridge.
