Re-emergence of Suburbia: The Case of Izmir Turkey

Abstract

In Turkey, suburbia has become a subject of debates since the 1990s relative to the reconfiguration of urban environments due to transnational economic relations, formation of new upper income groups, social polarization and changing consumption habits. With the help of a case study in the city of Izmir, this paper examines the extent of suburbanization in Turkey in relation to the theoretical works about this subject. The studies have shown that the emergence of suburbia in Izmir goes back to the periods of integration to the capitalist economy during the seventeenth century. Meanwhile, the Anglo-Saxon type suburbia in Izmir has reemerged especially in the recent decades and along the motorways to the city. However, this paper claims that these areas are not fully established in the case of Izmir due to costs of suburban life and lack of social and infrastructural facilities.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank to my colleagues Eylem Bal, Oytun Eylem Doğmuş, Duygu Çukur, Mercan Efe and the students of Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Architecture, City and Regional Planning in the year 2005 who contributed to the site survey at Urla.

Notes

The house of De Jongh: It is predicted that De Jongh house has been built by the 1800s and De Jongh family has left Izmir-Buca during the twentieth century and the building was sold to an Italian businessman. The house currently belongs to a Turkish institution. Source: http://www.buca-bld.gov.tr/tarihi.php.

In Turkey, Housing production by cooperatives has been developed as a method for developing housing units basically for low income groups (Koc, 1998). In the last decades, however, this method has also been used to develop housing units for upper income groups. By forming their cooperatives, members behave as an entity and invest on developing the site for construction usually by monthly payments.

Our information about the number of constructed units is limited only to these two periods.

Figure 9: Plot area: 7000 m², net housing area: 350 m² (Kaftanci, 1998).