This book is a compilation of nine articles written by a famous professor of geography between 1965 and 1985. The author analyses the industrial spaces, central business areas and population of Istanbul in the 1960s and 1970s. The volume includes detailed maps and tables on various industrial branches, and contains photos of the shantytowns that are integrated into industrial areas, the narrow streets that house small industrial organisations and large business centres, and various industrial plants within and outside the city. While investigating urbanisation and its effects, the author has focused on the relations between city and country at large. The articles contain detailed information on Istanbul’s rapid change, and emphasise the critical role of economic activities that take place within the city. The book aims to explore the city’s development over time, while taking into consideration the rapid spatial change experienced.
The author emphasises the fact that use of land within the city for all sorts of functions, including housing, has always been haphazard and arbitrary. A number of the articles in the collection focus on industrial activities that have spread uncontrolled throughout the city. While stressing the importance of industry and services, the author also emphasises the need to evaluate and control the structure and spread of industrial activities by the authorities. He maintains that while there have been efforts to plan and control the choice of space, these have so far been inadequate.
The articles in the final part of the book are on population. The author discusses the effects of increasing population on the spatial growth of the city, which has brought social problems, but also added new social and economic structure to certain places in the city. While looking at the growth of the city as a metropolis, he also stresses the fact that the city’s relations have intensified with the adjacent regions. Addressing the problems that may appear in the future and the issues that may arise with the expansion of the city towards Thrace, he underlines the crucial need for overall planning.
Looking at the issue of industry as a factor affecting the geographical outlook of the Bosphorus, the author gives the examples of Arnavutköy, Anadoluhisarı, Paşabahçe, Üsküdar, Ayazağa, İstinye and the Büyükdere valley.
According to the author, the roads built on landfill along the Bosphorus, and the bridges built over it, have not spoilt the beauty of the city, despite many objections and concerns prior to their construction. The study utilises a scientific language and data in its analysis of a geographical view of the urban structure of Istanbul, and as such, has an original and important place among other similar works on urbanisation in Istanbul.
Feryal Tansuğ
Translated by Aysu Dinçer