Remapping contemporary housing production in Turkey : a case study on housing patterns and marketing strategies


Thesis Type: Doctorate

Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture, Turkey

Approval Date: 2012

Thesis Language: English

Student: Duygu Koca

Supervisor: CELAL ABDİ GÜZER

Abstract:

The important positions of the thesis are mainly to understand the transformation in the architecture discipline under the umbrella of globalization and to define the current situation of residential architecture dominated by the new actors of construction sector through the transformation of identity value. In the first part of the study, how the production of residential architecture in Turkey is affected by the new values of capitalist globalization in the 21st century is examined. In order to monitor the development by the reflections of new actors in residential architecture, İstanbul is defined as a domain of the study. The main aim is to read the spatial and socio-cultural changes and developments in terms of residential architecture and to explore how the structure of the city affected by global developments and neo-liberal economic policies has formed. Thus, an inventory is established by the multi-unit housing projects completed in the first decade of the 21st century and the full list is investigated in terms of various kinds of housing supply and the different socio-economic status groups addressed by the projects. After defining the relation of residential architecture with city, the specific contribution of this dissertation is the explication of the role of the marketing industry in the formation of residential architecture through the conception of identity. The effects of marketing strategies on the architectural formation are discussed through selected cases to uncover which attitudes have caused the transformation in the internal values of the residential architecture. Therefore, the discussion on the identity formed by the coercive notions and the personalization of the actors involved in the process provides a basis for analysing the reflections of different disciplines on the architectural formation. This new discussion ground not only identifies the decisiveness of the architectural design in the formation of the end product but also contributes to the probe of the positional existence of the architect.