Future Istanbul: Urbanization of Transnational Capital and Informational Flow

Tulin Gorgulu - Yildiz Technical Universitytulingorgulu@gmail.com

Selim Okem* - Yildiz Technical Universityokemselim@gmail.com

Ebru Erdonmez - Yildiz Technical Universityebruerdonmez@yahoo.com

AbstractGlobal cities have been associated in a serious competition which generated buildings and urban functions that connote power, wealth and extravaganza. Being a global city Istanbul has also been exposed to the effects of globalization through means of both capital and information flow, and after the 1980’s, got influenced by the real property oriented urban transformation processes that took place around the world. The horizontal development observed in the city up to 1980s turned into vertical development after 1984. Since 1980s, Istanbul started to grow towards north as Bosphorus Bridges were built, and Maslak corridor has been transformed into a single function area consisting of multi-storey plazas. With this paper proposal for the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers we aim to put forth the macroform and physical texture of Istanbul for consideration which is subject to change in the future.  How will the movements among the functional zones, investment attacks and the projects the local governments obtained from international architects by competitions affect the future of Istanbul, a city with a historical background of thousands of years? This paper also aims to discuss how the image of the city with such an important cultural and historical background will be shaped by the effects of globalization and how it should be reconfigured within this given condition

Keywords: Urban Morphology, Globalization, growth, expansion, flow, Foreign Direct Investment, Istanbul

The globalization process in Istanbul has certain effects on urban morphology. To trace those effects one has to see how much Istanbul is a globalized city, understand the flow of foreign direct investments and how it is shared countrywide. The urban morphology of Istanbul is subject to change in the future with this financial (and informational) flow ina a globalized network of firms.

Everyone who has a little acquaintance with architecture knows that famous phrase Form follows function. It is one that associated with modernist thought in design the origins of which can be traced back to the American sculptor Horatio Greenough but it was Luis Sullivan, one of the godfathers of modern architecture, who adopted it and made it famous. After that, this statement became a basic rule for any design activity. It proposes the form of the design should be suitable to what do with it which is what we call its function. But what if the function itself is a function of something else?

So we assume what we call by function is defined by different elements such as flow of finance in which the service producers in a city is integrated, transportaional network that defines the distances in between spaces and how you cover it , our life styles, and even the existing forms which the design is integrated into the same context with .

Everything is in a constant flow. Air, water, land, people, cars, trians, ships flow around us; even the galaxies flow around in the universe. The figure below shows the formation of limestone and travertine formations in Pamukkale a southwestern province in Turkey which means cottoncastle in English. The tectonic movements of land makes the underground water rich with calcium bicarbonate rise up to the surface that flows over the rocks leaving back an ice or cotton like formation. Another natural formation to exemplify how flow shapes the environment is from Giants’ Causeway which is located in the north-east coast of Ireland in a province called Antrim. As a result of intense volcanic activity, highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds and formed an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled rapidly, contraction caused an extensive fracture network that produced the distinctive polygonal columns seen today.

Figure 1 Pammukkale, Turkey and Giants’ Causeway, Antrim Ireland

The Golden Horn is an other example to the form follows flow statement and it is a good ezample of how function follows form that follows the flow (Figure 2). The Golden Horn It is a flooded prehistoric estuary. And its existence have provided a natural harbor for trading ships and made the ancient City of Constantinople possible. In this painting the anchored trade ships on the golden horn waiting for their supplies can be observed. Back at the skyline is the Mosque of Sultan Suleyman and aquaduct of Valence.

Figure 2 Golden Horn: Function follows form and flow

Slide 11Istanbul is situated on the coast of marmara and black sea and it separates Europe from Asia by the strait called Bosphorus. Istanbul displays a linear development pattern along the east-west axis. The north of the city is uninhabited and is covered with forests that contain water reserves of the city. The topography on the northern section of the city is defined by a sequence of mountains that are the extensions of the northern tourus mountain system. The transportation network is defined by two main highways. One is D100 the formerly built highway network of istanbul and the other is E80 which is a part of TEM the Trans-European Motorway. The city has developed in between he connection roads of D100 and E80, and the coastal roads that surrounds the city on both contitnets and alongside the golden horn (Figure 3)

Figure 3, Geographical situation of Istanbul, and its transportation network

To understand the urbanization of transnational capital and informational flow, we may need to have some idea about the term global connectivity of a city which is derived from inter-city relations on a global scale. The term ‘world city network’ builds up on Sassen’s treatment of advanced producer service firms as producers of 'global cities'. Major global service firms operate through numerous offices in cities across the world to provide a 'seamless' service for their clients. Through this practice they create a network of global service centres that we term the world city network. (Taylor, Catalano and Walker, 2002: p 2368) The map in Figure 4 shows the linkage rates that istanbul develops with other world cities. According to this atlas of connectivities, İstanbul seems to produce linkages with cities like Athens, Sofia, Brussels, Warsaw, Prague, Johannesburg, Kiew, Moscow, Helsinki, Bejing, and Shanghai more than other world cities.

Figure 4, İstanbul’s Connectivity with other World Cities [1]

Table 1 shows the rank of Istanbul among 50 cities with the highest conectivity values in the world city network. It indicates how serviceable Istanbul is within the transnational system of service providing companies. Istanbul can provide slightly more than 40% of the connections made by London that shares the top five rank with New York, Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo (Cadirci, H.,2006: p. 135) Conectivity value of a city is also an indicator of the volume of transnational capital a city involves with

Cities Relative Connectivity Cities Relative Connectivity

1- London 1 26- Kuala Lumpur 0.445 2- New York 0.976 27- Stockholm 0.445 3- Hong Kong 0.707 28- Bangkok 0.437 4- Paris 0.699 29- Prague 0.434 5- Tokyo 0.691 30- Dublin 0.430 6- Singapore 0.645 31- Shangai 0.428 7- Chicago 0.616 32- Barcelona 0.427 8- Milan 0.604 33- Atlanta 0.427 9- Los Angeles 0.600 34- Moscow 0.422 10- Toronto 0.595 35- Istanbul 0.420 11- Madrid 0.594 36- Beijing 0.420 12- Amsterdam 0.590 37- Washington 0.418 13- Sidney 0.578 38- Auckland 0.418 14- Frankfurt 0.567 39- Vienna 0.417 15- Brussels 0.557 40- Warsaw 0.416 16- Sao Paulo 0.541 41- Seoul 0.415 17- San Francisco 0.508 42- Lisbon 0.414 18- Mexico City 0.486 43- Johannesburg 0.414 19- Zurich 0.485 44- Copenhagen 0.413 20- Taipei 0.477 45- Budapest 0.411 21- Mumbai 0.477 46- Manila 0.408 22- Jakarta 0.477 47- Montreal 0.398 23- Buenos Aires 0.476 48- Hamburg 0.395 24- Melbourne 0.467 49- Munich 0.388 25- Miami 0.463 50- Dusseldorf 0.388

Table 1, Connectivity of the World Cities (Cadirci, H.,2006: p. 135)

Then lets take a look at the foreign direct investment flow towards Turkey in the past 20 years. Figure 5 shows the Foreign Direct Investments in million dollars throughout the years and you can see the increase after year 2000

Foreign direct investment

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

1985-1990 1991-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005

yearsin

ve

stm

en

t in

mill

ion

$

Figure 5 Foreign Direct Investments in Turkey [2]

Slide 17The diagram in Figure 6 shows the distribution of Foreign direct investments countrywide. The transnational capital flow is concentrated in the western regions of Turkey. Istanbul and its neighbouring cities attract nearly one third of all the foreign investments.

Figure 6 Distribution of Foreign Direct Investment in Turkey (Berköz, L., Türk, Ş., Ş., 2007: p. 63)

After examining the investment values, the urban expansion data provided by Geymen and Baz who have derived it by working on sattelite images have been analysed (Table 2). If we examine the urban growth data over the 15 years we observe a 2.5% of increase per year in the total built up area in istanbul. The Decrease in cropland area is 0.84% percent per year. The decrease in total forest area is 0,75% per year. (Geymen, A., Baz, I., 2008: p. 452)

1990 1995 2000 2005 Classes

ha % ha % ha % ha %

Built-up area 60,524 11,13 68,512 12,60 71,345 13,12 85,239 15,68 Barren 13,166 2,42 13,235 2,43 13,749 2,53 12,880 2,37 Cloud – – 7,437 1,37 – – 8,944 1,64 Cropland 144,775 26,62 144,230 26,52 139,392 25,63 126,339 23,23 Forest-Deciduous 137,169 25,23 136,671 25,13 134,452 24,73 132,058 24,29 Forest-Evergreen 17,415 3,20 17,332 3,19 17,031 3,13 16,993 3,13 Grassland 30,552 5,62 28,362 5,22 26,317 4,84 25,038 4,60 Scrub/Brush 122,344 22,50 122,727 22,57 123,202 22,66 120,302 22,12 Water 16,935 3,11 4,494 0,83 16,889 3,11 14,965 2,75 Wetland 890 0,16 770 0,14 1,392 0,26 1,011 0,19 Total 543,769 543,769 543,769 543,769

Table 2, Land use change in urban categories

After collecting those data, and arranging them in a series , we have decided to compare them like any other researcher would do. We would not want to jump to any conclusions but the corelation between the foreign direct investment and urban expansion values seem to be significantly high (Table 3). OK, more investment, more urban expansion and faster decrease in the cropland area, one can ask what is intresting in all this. Maybe we will find it in the next two figures.

land use

correlation with FDI

built-up area 0,94 forest (d) -0,91 forest (e) -0,70 forest -0,96 grassland -0,78 cropland -0,98 scrub-bush -0,92

Table 3 Correlation of landuse changes and FDI

First let’s take a look at how the increase and decrease in land categories in the last 15 years have occured. Of all the increase in the built up area is consumed from all the other land categories. If we project those data as percentages on a graph we will see the highest amount of area is consumed from the cropland area (Figure 7)

Loss in Land Categories

Cropland55%

Barren1%

Water6%

Scrub/Brush6%

Grassland16%

Forest-Evergreen1%

Forest-Deciduous15%

Figure 7, Loss in Land Use Categories

Land use analysis provided by Geymen and Baz in Figure 8, the built-up area is marked in red and increase in the built up area in 15 years is marked in black. And if we keep on observing the same analysis we can see the urban expansion taking place through the cropland areas starting from the transformational network of the city. The cropland on this map is marked by brown dots on white background. This is mainly because the expansion follows the easiest way possible. Instead of going into north, where the topography is defined by high mountains, the expansion seems to choose the cropland areas which has a comparatively moderate topography.

Figure 8, Urban Expansion (Geymen, A., Baz, I., 2008: p. 452)

We can use linear regression to predict the foreign direct investment amounts, urban growth, and the cropland decrease in the next 15 years (Figure 9).

Foreign Direct Investment (Predictions)

05000

100001500020000250003000035000

1985

-19

90

1991

-19

95

1996

-20

00

2001

-20

05

2005

-20

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2010

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2015

-20

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Urban Growth (Predictions)

020406080

100120

1985-1990

1991-1995

1996-2000

2001-2005

2005-2010

2010-2015

2015-2020

Years

1000

ha

Urban Growth (Predictions)

020406080

100120

1985-1990

1991-1995

1996-2000

2001-2005

2005-2010

2010-2015

2015-2020

Years

1000

ha

Figure 9, Predictions: increase inFDI, urban growth and cropland decrease

and we can project it on the map and what we would see in the future would look like as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10, Urban Expansion and Cropland Decrease in th next 15 yearsConclusions

If we take a look at the distributions of services in istanbul, we will see that they are concentrated on the şişli maslak corridor which has become the new central business axis starting from the 90’s (Özdemir, D., 2002: pp. 255-257)

Figure 11, Concentration of FDI

If we take a look at how the city will tend to expand in the future, we can say that on şişli and maslak corridor a vertical expansion can be ecpected. To the east and west extends of the city, the expansion will tend to follow the path through the cropland areas where the topography is more plain and the transportation routes and seems to have a sread out character. So the city has to take account its coarse character of topography which is an advantage to stop the city expansion towards the natural resources vital for the city.The topographical character of the city is at the sametime a disadvantage for it will force the city to grow into the cropland areas (Figure 12)

Figure 12, Future Urban Morphology

The spread out character of the expansion at the west and east ends of the city has to be controlled my proposing new urban centers to those areas. But it is also important to balance the growth of those centers for they will attract more population. Lastly it is important to meet sisli maslak axis with appropriate public functions for it tends to become a stronger center for the city. The existing public use and the open area design is very insufficient and this axis should also be supported with public functions to prevent it become criminal areas at night.

Referneces

Berköz, L., Türk, Ş., Ş., 2007, “Yabancı Yatırımların Yer Seçimini Etkileyen Faktörler: Türkiye Örneği / Factors Influencing the Choice of FDI Locations in Turkey”, İTÜ Dergisi/a Mimarlık Planlama Tasarım, İstanbul, 6 (2, pp. 59-72

Cadirci, H., 2006, Küresel Kentler ve İstanbul’un Küreselleşmesi / Global Cities and the Globalization of Istanbul, M.SSc. Thesis, Marmara University, İstanbul

Geymen, A., Baz, I., 2008, “Monitoring urban growth and detecting land-cover changes on the Istanbul metropolitan area “, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 136 (1-3), pp. 449-460

Özdemir, D., (2002), “The distribution of foreign direct investments in the service sector in Istanbul”, Cities, Vol. 19 (4), pp. 249-259

Taylor, P.,J., Catalano, G., Walker, D., R., F., 2002, Urban Studies, 39 (13), 2367-2376

Internet References[1] http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/visual/images/hw_is.jpg , 07.04,2008

[2] Prime Ministery Undersecreteriat of Treasury, December 2006, http://www.hazine.gov.tr/stat/yabser/dyyvb_Aralik2006.xls)