Policy-oriented urban planning in 1930s in turkey: İzmit urban plan

Abstract

Following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, urbanism became one of main issues in the agenda of the State. Between 1923 and 1940, 117 cities and towns in Anatolia and Rumelia were planned. After planning cities demolished during the War of Independence, in pursuit of Great Depression in 1929, Etatism and Populism principles became basis for policy-oriented development of urban space. This study aims at examining İzmit Urban Plan in 1935 (by Hermann Jansen) in the context of urban planning approaches and 1930s’ political structure of the Republic of Turkey. In this perspective, this article is divided into three main parts. In the first part, I discuss 19th Century and 20th Century prevailing approaches of Urbanism in Europe and their relevance in Turkey’s Urban Planning Practice. In the second part, I manifest general structure, issues, and different periods of Early Republican Urban Planning in Turkey. In the third part, I discuss importance of İzmit Urban Plan in this period as a model in addition to analyzing basic design and planning principles of the Plan. Further, I scrutinize similarities and differ­ences of the Plan with European urbanism models. © 2017, Istanbul Teknik Universitesi, Faculty of Architecture. All rights reserved.