IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

This study departs from the broader problem of planning in historic environments narrowing its focus to the relationship between economic organisation and spatial patterns in traditional trade centres. A review of the existing literature reveals that research has concentrated predominantly on spatial-physical deterioration and conservation problems. Addressing these areas solely through physical interventions, however, proves insufficient for explaining their dynamics comprehensively. Understanding the form of economic organisation must therefore precede any attempt to make sense of areas that sustain economic vitality despite significant structural challenges. The central argument is as follows: the physical and functional changes observed in the field are the spatial expression of a restructuring of economic relationship networks. The deterioration visible in the Hans District is addressed in existing planning and conservation frameworks primarily through physical interventions, while the economic organisation transformations underlying this process receive insufficient attention. From this gap, the research poses the following question: how has the Hans District — historically organised around port-oriented banking, storage and wholesale trade — evolved in terms of its contemporary organisation; how can this transformation be read through spatial patterns; and through what planning tools can it be guided? The research is structured around the city–port–trade relationship across two axes. On the historical analytical axis, the spatial distribution of social classes and the production-trade-finance chain are traced through documentary evidence, with particular attention to the 15th-century Byzantine-Ottoman transition. On the field-based axis the study will employ actor mapping, semi-structured business interviews and GISbased economic organisation cartography. Study is ongoing this paper presents findings from the theoretical framework historical analysis stage.