Becoming a neo-liberal city: Ankara North Entrance Urban Transformation Project


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mimarlık Fakültesi, Mimarlık Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: NAZLI AYŞE GÜMÜŞ

Danışman: GÜVEN ARİF SARGIN

Özet:

Urban space has begun to be commodified to full extent by the affect of neoliberalism, which is bared upon free flow of capital over a global network of cities. By 1970’s, the phenomenon of globalization made social, political and economic relations all around the world to be redefined under these circumstances. While nation states were altering their role in favor of capital power, early centers of production have come to lose their attractiveness and functions, and in especially developed countries there emerged necessity for the notion of “urban transformation”. On the other hand, in Turkey, urban transformation projects have begun to be applied lately, under specific conditions and with different reasons, but still under neo-liberal hegemony. The aim of this thesis is to make a comparative analysis of “Ankara North Entrance Urban Transformation Project” by understanding the notion of urban transformation together with altered role of nation state at the age of neoliberalism, by comparatively analyzing grand transformation projects applied at three capital cities in Europe, namely, London, Paris, and Berlin, during late 20th century. The comparison criteria for project preparation and application processes of the case of Ankara and European examples are, first, the scale and location within the city; second, reasons of application in terms of their legitimating processes; third, the ways of providing financial resources for projects; fourth, administrative dimension of urban policy making; fifth, architectural domain of the projects; and lastly participation conditions of urban inhabitants and social agents, including the professionals.