VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

Housing, evolving alongside life, is shaped by social, cultural, and political events, becoming a collective product of its environment. Its formal and structural features significantly influence the physical texture of cities, making housing inseparable from envisioning a city’s future. Using Istanbul as a case study, this research explores the city’s future through a housing lens. Through inter-scale research, the study examines housing’s evolution in Istanbul, employing mapping, collage, and numerical data to analyze critical thresholds and transformation processes, akin to ‘anatomical imaging.’ Identifying unique regions like Üsküdar and Çekmeköy, the study delves into their formation stories and diverse housing types. Future projections for these regions are then analyzed through academic research and current dynamics, predicting potential risks via mapping and collages, a form of ‘genetic check-up.’ By associating the city’s future with its genetic makeup, as represented by these neighborhoods (Kuzguncuk, Burhaniye, Mimar Sinan, and Nişantepe), the research provides insights into Istanbul’s housing-related genetic characteristics, laying a foundation for envisioning its future. Considerations such as transportation, population, earthquakes, urban transformation, history, and sustainability are crucial for İstanbul’s today and future. Also, issues like climate crisis, injustice, earthquakes, and social segregation will persist, alongside increasing commercial activities, branding, security problems, spatial injustice, and scarce resources, posing potential risks. While rooted in Istanbul’s historical and heterogeneous nature, the findings are applicable to many other cities, emphasizing the universality of urban-housing dynamics.