Gazi University Faculty of Engineering & Architecture

Departmentof

Urban & Regional Planning        

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

Ankara, TURKEY, 13-17 June 2005 

“ANKARA” 

The City Longing For It's Environment

By Mehmet Tuncer        Assoc. Prof. Dr.    

 

Ancyra, Angora, Ankara,

HARMONY OF PAST AND CONTEMPORARY NATURAL &

URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Modern Capital of Turkey

seven million inhabitant are projected for

2020

BUT :

Ankara: lost its valleys, orchards, rivers

and streams part of its historical environment

(1711) Gravure of Pitton Tourneford

In 1839; Angora was walled small town

ANGORA : AT THE END OF 19TH CENTURY

Today, the heritage of Atatürk, Atatürk Orman Çiftliği,

one of the important “ecological protection zones”; Imrahor Valley,

Eymir and Mogan Lakes,

Eymir-Mogan Water Basins

IMRAHORVALLEY

Last lakes and valleys need to preserve as an

ecological system!

Mogan, Eymir Lakes, Cubuk Dam and Imrahor Valley are under the thread of pollution from

highways and urban, industrial wastes

Result of water pollution: deaths of fishes

Mogan & Eymir Lakes environmental problems and potantial pollution sources

basin of the Cubuk, Ankara River and fertile lands in west,

on the Istanbul Road to the Kazan, Elmadağ where famous

for skiing facilities are under threat.

There is a considerable pressure on historic core

Orchards:

Valleys, hills of Keçiören, Etlik, Dikmen, Seyranbağlari were firstly invaded by the squatter

houses (gecekondu).

after 1983 via improvement plans

those areas were opened to high rise development.

As a result, the urban green, which had already been destructed by

(build and sell type) of contractors

AFTER SQUATTERS : Urban renewal samples from Etlik and Keçiören

were wiped away by high rise development in the inner parts of the valleys, which were definitely

not available for settlements.

Castle of Estergon

Valleys, Rivers and Streams again :

Many valleys with rivers like Ankara Cayi, Bendderesi, Çubuk

Cayi (Stream) was put underground and

was included in the sewer system due to the fact that they had been

formerly used for sewerage.

Jansen’s design of a swimming pool on the Roman Bend was put

away and forgotten

Barakalaşma- Shelter housing on the hills of Altındağ, which was once ignored and was not pain

enough attention,

firstly turned the Bend River into a polluted water stream and then to a

sewer system.

In fallowing years the magnificent base of the valley, on

which the Ankara Castle rises,

covered by the squatters finally the Bend River Avenue

was constructed on river.

Having the “Hıdır Tomb” on the Altındağ Hill already annihilated, the beautiful green areas and trees

on the bank of river,

which once the place where the Hıdırellez was celebrated, completely destroyed and

disappeared.

Orchards Again:

The habitants of Angora used to orchards (BAĞLAR)

at higher spots of the city in order to keep themselves from the dusty

and scorching days.

plateaus of the south and north of Angora had Etlik, Keciören,

Dikmen, Gaziosmanpasa, Esat orchards.

There used to be fabulous orchards houses built by the well-

off habitants of the city.

It is plausible to say “used to be” because almost all of them were

demolished, destroyed unfortunately

except for the few which are preserved until today and the multi-storey blocks took their

places.

Except one at Keciören :

This house which is now used as Ankara Research Center

in Gaziosmanpasa the orchard in the Papazın Bağı, Karlı Street are the ones who survived trough the

time and destruction of master and implementation plans.

Gecekondu Improvement (!):

Orchards, in the modern (!) life in which the seasonal migration was forgotten, were firstly covered by squatter housing as if there is no place else for growth in the city.

And then in 1980 as if a great invention, the areas were

“improved” by the district municipalities.

Only seeing the improvement action in the Keçiören would be

enough to astonish you.

Almost all of the quarter “improved” via constructing 5 to 8

stories of apartment blocks

without leaving any area for urban open space, urban green, or public

uses like sports areas or playgrounds.

Gecekondu (Squatter) renewal (not rehabilitation!)

high rise and high density, destroying all greenery

RENEWAL of URBAN & SQUATTER AREAS IN

ANKARA

Also the Valley of Çubuk Stream, which was once the place where

flower greenhouses and vegetable gardens existed, was “improved”,

and the area is fully covered with a huge hypermarket, municipality

buildings,

and “Gaudy-like” arabesque-styled apartments that are proof of the development of Turkish

architecture which can compete with Spanish examples.

Orchards, valleys and rivers of Dikmen and Etlik also were brutally “improved” like the

Keçiören case.

“Urban Renewal” (!) in the Yenisehir and housing

cooperative areas:

YENİŞEHİR / KIZILAY

YENISEHIR / KIZILAY : Destroying the landscape, historic &

cultural and human scale urban spaces

The foundation for those inventions was laid in the early 60ies when the Flat Ownership

Law came into force.

The first cooperative zones like Bahçelievler, Güvenevler,

Yenimahalle, Or-An, Varlık Mahallesi, Subayevleri etc.,

., and almost the whole Kızılay was demolished and

reconstructed, sometimes for twice, in 15-20 years.

KAVAKLIDERE 1931

KAVAKLIDERE 1991

This process is called “urban renewal” in the planning

literature; however, the renewal is generally applied to socially

problematic high-rise zones in western societies to create low

density areas.

In spite of this fact, probably because there was no other place left for settlements and in order to protect the lowlands and hills of

Ankara,

the renewals at the same quarters over and over seemed to be a

natural process.

God knows how many times we encountered never-ending and

continuous electric, water, natural gas and sewerage excavations and asphalting in many places in our

city.

Of course these constructions, muddy roads, ditches,

excavations, even walking to our houses on wooden bridges had been a funny trip back to my

days in my eastern home village childhood days.

It has been way too late when we realize that continuously renewed pavements and

infrastructure has been one of the biggest environmental problems

and one of the reasons of the ever-increasing inflation and national

depts.…

I have lived most of my life in the Bahçelievler; and I have been

trying to live on between the never ending constructions and

continuously renewed infrastructure systems;

I have been struggling with ever-increasing population, traffic and

parking problems.

It is easy to examine that this process have been going on in

many quarters of the city.

The effects of all the destruction of orchards and urban green,

how dense the city have gotten owing to construction of multi-storey apartments standing on at least 3-4 times bigger land then

the former structures,

Prof. Hermann Jansen’s Plan :

BAHCELIEVLER (Garden Houses)

A good example of the destroyed living urban space and environment

RESULTS : air pollution, noise and visual pollution

Air pollution especially in

winters

it is not easy to calculate the social and economic problems,

environmental problems, psychological problems caused by

these changes!

All these changes have taken place for land owners and

contractors to make huge amounts of profit.

The flats are shared between them; however, paying the price

for infrastructure and going trough the process is left to us to

experience!

Our national wealth has been wasted on the poor quality

structures that collapse on our people in every earthquake.

A modern, and planned capital town, the end of the episode in which Jansen tries to create a

Garden City;

here we have had air pollution, transportation problems, lack of infrastructure and non-served,

non-green environment;

since this is the situation, we can say now that we should preserve the last green areas in the city as if they are “oasises” in a desert.

Old Ankara :

ULUS SQUARE 1930

ULUS SQUARE

2004

Old Ankara were not able to survive the never-ending rent

quarrel;

ANAFARTALAR 1926

ANAFARTALAR 2004

except for the areas which were designed as “Protocol Areas” in

Jansen’s plan, especially the main streets of multi-storey (6-8-

10) buildings.

the development of Yenişehir and the pressure of CBD had not affected this area to an extend.

owners who could not demolish the old structures and build new

ones,

deserted the quarters of Old Ankara and left them into a

decline.

INNER CITADEL : Remains of Old Ankara

One of the main

remains of the

historic & cultural urban

heritage

Surrounded by Squatters (Gecekondu)

residential tissue turned into one of the poorest areas with new uses: 1. warehousing, 2. secondary uses 3. urban deteriorated areas .

The area turned into a “ghetto”, which is used by the immigrants only till they built themselves a

squatter house

“The Citadel”, that Jansen defined as the “Crown of the City”, and

which was kept without any conservation strategy until early

80ies,

had became the focus of unplanned applications via

historical site (Protocol Area) restrictions

and long lasting conservation plan preparing processes.

The historical tissue, which tried to rehabilitate itself owing to the

attention of tourism

and intellectual groups, was destroyed by eclectic structures that copied the civil architecture

of Ankara.

The urban design project for Hacıbayram pedestrianised the

area, and dolmuş buses are displaced.

URBAN DESIGN

PLAN FOR HACIBAYRAM AND TEMPLE

OF AUGUSTOS

The aim : creating a pedestrian square;

however, today we see that the area is again invaded by

vehicles.

20 years passed after the Ulus Competition Project,

the places which went trough urban design and restoration

processes in the 100 hectares of area is not more than the number

of one hand’s fingers.

ULUS HISTORICAL COMMERCIAL

CENTER CONSERVATION / REHABILITATION

PLAN

Çıkrıkçılar Rise, Hükümet Square, Suluhan Area, Itfaiye

Square are yet to be pedestrianised,

in fact, they are under pressure becoming more dense and of

vehicle traffic.

The enormous Altındağ Municipality Building in Esen Park in this quarter of the city, not only annihilated the vista

point of Jansen plan,

but also showed the merit to collapse the pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the area.

The Kaleiçi in the Old Ankara, which is piece by piece

annihilated by fires, still is yet to be protected by a Conservation

Plan.

The Old Ankara’s situation in this respect is not very different form the New Ankara; however, there are SIT restrictions that stop the

speculators.

If these restrictions wouldn’t exist, it is plausible to say that Old Ankara

would be demolished in weeks and –let’s not so exaggerate- 4-5 storey

building would be constructed in the Kaleiçi.

Conclusion:

Today natural, cultural and historical environment of Ankara

is still annihilated.

Improvement plans are gambling and mortgage of the future of the

city;

and the time to stop this process is definitely just more than

arrived.

Also all citizens, non-governmental institutions, local

and central government authorities are responsible for this

process;

however, the biggest responsibility does belong to the owner of these

cities, municipalities.

Inventory of historical and cultural heritage and a

“Conservation Masterplan for Ankara” should be formed.

A complete inventory of natural values, water basins, rivers,

valleys, valuable lands, flora and fauna should be formed.

“Natural Environment Conservation Masterplan” should be prepared in order to preserve

and improve all of the stated above.

“Metropolitan Area Masterplan” should be prepared which

preserves natural, cultural and historical heritages (in 1/25000

or 1/50000 scales.)

Urban Designs should be prepared so as to form specialized projects

for restoration and rehabilitation of the values stated above (in 1/5000,

1/1000, 1/500 … 1/1 scales.)

The destroy-built-sell and improvement planning process

should be taken under control, and structures should not be

demolished before they expire their economic and technical lifetimes.

The revising of infrastructure, roads and pavements in every

election campaign should be taken under control with limitations;

since this the only way to reach a sustainable urban development.

The citizens, habitants of Ankara should be enlightened and

informed about the conservation of natural and historical

environment.

Empowering the non-governmental institutions to make them be able to undertake projects for conservation and development

is also very important issue for the future of the city.

It should not be forgotten that every citizen has an important part

in this process.

Referances :

• TUNÇER, M., Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma İçin Tarihsel Çevreyi Koruma Politikası : Ankara, Bergama ve Şanlıurfa Örnekleri, Doktora Tezi, AÜ, SBF.

• ANKARA İMAR PLANI, 1937, S.5, Alaeddin Kıral Basımevi, İstanbul. (Hermann Jansen’in Ankara İmar Plan Raporu, Türkçe Çevirisi)

• Ankara Kalesi Koruma Geliştirme İmar Planı, Projesi, Yarışma Şartnamesi, Ank. 1987.

• Mehmed Kemal, 1983, Türkiye’nin Kalbi Ankara• ÖNEN, R., Ahi Şefafettin Camisi ve Çevresinin Sağlıklaştırılması Projesi,

TMMOB. MO Ank. Şb. “Kültürel Miras Sayısı”.• Ulus Tarihi Kent Merkezi Çevre Düzenleme Yarışma Şartnamesi, Ankara

Büyükşehir Belediyesi, İmar Dairesi Başkanlığı,• Ulus Tarihi Kent Merkezi Çevre Düzenleme Yarışması, I. Ödül Raporu. • Ankara BŞB, Ankara Programı Uygulama Planı, 1989.• Koruyucu Kent Yenilemesi,• http://www.ergir.com/Ankara.htm