View of Kartal District.
As Niyazi watched the sun set over the Princes’ Islands, a sea of multiple-storey concrete apartments merged with his view. With no formal planning or architectural education, Kartal’s representative of the Platform for Istanbul’s Neighbourhood Associations speaks a language that holds sway in municipal negotiations. He is treading the fine line between both the Kartal District and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipalities, as well as the landowners, and a UK-based architectural office, Niyazi eloquently speaks on behalf of the 10,000 fellow-residents of Hürriyet, his neighbourhood located on the hills behind Kartal. He knew most of the residents, who settled through mass-migration in the 1970s, fought hard to obtain ‘amnesty registry’ for their illegally constructed houses, which started off as single-storey buildings but have now turned into multi-storey residencies, hosting extended families and relatives. He has been part of the negotiations during the development of the famous Kartal redevelopment project. Soon, Niyazi’s view could alter completely: overlooking a wavy array of glass and steel towers with a luxury yacht marina on its tail.
Kartal lies in the south-east of Istanbul, stretching from the Marmara Sea in its South, with an elevation of up to 500 metres towards its water and green reservoirs, surrounded by the TEM motorway to its North. The district encompasses over 68 km2. Decades of growth rates of nearly 50 per cent saw the population reach a total of 427,156 consisting of white-collar workers, small-scale tradesmen and industrialists. Like many other peripheral districts in Istanbul, it has grown immensely since the 1950s, with migration coming into its heavily industrialised areas. A lack of implementation of development plans saw 85 per cent of the housing stock made up of poor concrete material, many of which are illegal, and 25 per cent of the population still living in gecekondus.
It is connected to the rest of the city and beyond via the E-5 and TEM motorways, the suburban railway and the municipal and inter-city ferries from the Kartal pier. The planned Kadıköy – Kartal metro extension and the completion of the Marmaray rail and upgrade of the suburban rail system are aimed at making Kartal a major transport hub. With its close proximity to Sabiha Gökçen Airport and attractions such as the Istanbul Formula 1 track, the newly developing Pendik ‘silicon valley’, and Sabancı University, Kartal has become the obvious candidate to be designated as a new sub-centre, and a major tool in Istanbul’s de-centralisation policies. Creating a new central business district in Kartal aims to alleviate the pressure from the city centre and its northern axis, while creating 100,000 new jobs and affecting a grand population of 2 million in the region.
Around 5.5 km2 of the derelict industrial area was part of an urban design competition, won by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2006. This regeneration plan, consistent with the city’s ambitions of bringing in signature architects, sits alongside other ambitious projects in Europe, the scale of which resembles the likes of the HafenCity in Hamburg.
The Kartal redevelopment project is championed by many as the first large-scale redevelopment project in Istanbul that involves all key actors during its realisation: the respective municipalities, the landowners/developers, the masterplanners and architect as well as the local residents. Initiated by the IMP, it has created its own landowners’ association, formed by some 26 main landowners who pursue negotiation via a designated urban negotiator, whose job is to maintain the communication between all the actors involved. The large-scale masterplan was approved by Kartal municipality, governed by an AKP Mayor prior to 2009 local elections. However, construction cannot start until 1:1000 scale, local development plans are put into place.
In March 2009, Kartal, a district whose residents traditionally vote social-democrat, re-elected a mayor from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), ending the short AKP reign. This halted the preparation of the 1:1000 local development plans for the regeneration project. As of July 2009, the IMP representatives were hopeful to get the plans approved by the new mayor Dr. Altınok Öz, with the aim to begin construction in 2010. However, as the global financial gloom has yet to dissolve, main landowner/developers, such as the Eczacıbaşı Holding, have yet to confirm the likelihood of this scenario[6]. It will take at least another couple of years of bargaining before the Kartal skyline changes, but when it does it will become the signature of a new way of urban redevelopment in Istanbul. Until then, who the new residents in Kartal will be who in due course can see the effects, shall remain a mystery.