Changes in Urban Density; Case of Istanbul's Massive Redeveloping Areas

Since the beginning of the year 2000, there have been significant changes under the name of "urban transformation" in Istanbul metropolitan area and on top of the demolished housing areas, high density structures are being built. Thus, the morphological structure of the city with its density texture changes significantly. While some people welcome this change for reasons such as "durable to earthquakes" and "modern architectures", by a group of architects and city planners, urban transformation is regarded as quite alarming due to such reasons as the high density, inadequate public facilities will become much more inadequate and the sun availability of surrounding structures. With this point of view, the study explores the changes in Istanbul, especially in residential areas, with the dimension of "density" and discusses how the general picture is and will be formed in terms of density of population and structure, which are some of the most significant factors determining the quality of life. In this respect, the aim is to question how "urban transformation" practices in Istanbul are differentiated from existing urban fabric and how new structure that will last for at least 6070 years have changed in terms of density and how the urban fabric evolved. In addition, in order to understand whether this change has similarities with other metropolitan cities, or how they are differentiated, the theoretical studies and other metropolitan cities' current data are reviewed and the definition of "urban density" and the theories that explain the concept of density in the planning literature are being discussed. In this direction, with the 6 selected sample projects to understand the density changes in the residential areas in Istanbul, the picture with the new projects developed in areas with high earthquake risks is examined comparatively.