Developing Turkiye And New Urban Policies

Our country is rapidly growing and developing in terms of defence industry-centred technology and investments. We have the opportunity to carry both our cities and our development to higher levels by supporting the development move we have achieved in recent years as a result of the urbanism policy.

Our existing cities have been developing with an understanding based on population density, cultural assets, building stock based on technological innovations and infrastructure renewals.
In fact, the main purpose of a city is to help raise healthy people and contribute to the development of society. Cities gradually shape people in daily life by directing, limiting, or making them desire actions they live in, through the elements and rules they have. People with the awareness of this feeling live in the city in order to improve themselves and reach opportunities not available to those in rural life.

We should aim to carry out our urbanization policies not only to provide people with shelter but also to offer them sustainable and livable detached houses with gardens

The priority of a person who starts to live in a city is the need to feel safe, as stated in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. People want to create a space of their own in order to meet this need. When people’s need for space and settlement is met, their self-confidence and economic success increase correspondingly. The latest research conducted in our country shows that the rate of those living in detached houses is 26 per cent, the rate of those living in slums is 4 per cent, the rate of those living in apartments is 61 per cent, the rate of those living in complexes is 8 per cent, and the rate of those living in very luxurious buildings and villas is 1 per cent. As is apparent in the current housing stock, we build our cities on dense residential clusters and the apartments to be built there. We usually design detached houses as villas and slums in rural areas. Besides, during the expansion of cities, existing policies are encouraged to convert detached houses from 30-40 years ago into apartments. As a result of these policies, in current conditions, it is almost impossible to live in a detached house in urban life in terms of economic opportunities depending on urban plans. In our country, this understanding of construction is a common output of the current urbanization policies along with the income level.

As the income and development levels of countries increase, people move away from mass housing or apartment-style life and move to detached houses that are more integrated with nature. 79 per cent of the population in the UK lives in detached houses, while this rate is 87.99 per cent in the USA. Looking at these statistics, we can tell that the development of society is directly proportional to the development of the place of living. Architect Turgut Cansever points out that the continuation of society in detached houses is not only a change in a housing type but also a change in lifestyle. The increase in the development level of our country in the last 20 years indicates that new cities that will support detached house life should be planned and the lifestyle brought by the apartment style should
change.

We have the opportunity to carry both our cities and our development to higher levels by supporting the development move we have achieved in recent years as a result of the urbanism policy

In our country, which has been developing with new investments, we should aim to carry out our urbanization policies not only to provide people with shelter but also to offer them sustainable and livable detached houses with gardens. Instead of supporting the development of our cities merely with technological opportunities, we can plan a new lifestyle integrated with nature. We can consider the planning of our cities along with the new development policy, and through a new urban policy for our future, we can promote a lifestyle with a private garden where healthy people grow.

We can create urban policies for people to move to detached houses and live in harmony with the natural environment. If we can get to the realization that the need for shelter in our cities is towards healthier and more livable places, we can improve the level of welfare by improving the technologies we have, and the contribution of society to the development of the country will occur through a logarithmic multiplier, instead of an arithmetic one. We can make a move similar to the move we have achieved in defence and technology in the field of urbanism, and we can realize the belief of Architect Turgut Cansever that Türkiye is the only country that is capable of revealing new understandings in architecture.