Residential satisfaction assessment of a 1970s modernist housing community in Istanbul: searching for the reasons behind the preservation of a housing community’s current architectural status against the urban transformation movements affecting the entire city

Abstract

Going against the mainstream popularity of high-rise housing developments dominating the Turkish construction market in the late twentieth century, Haluk Baysal and Melih Birsel collaboratively built the Istanbul Yesilkoy Housing Community project in 1973 using the principles of modern architecture. Although the modern lifestyle dominant in the design of this housing project did not emerge from the principles of life inherent to Turkish domestic architecture, this study examines how this project could remain resistant to the destructive force of a possible earthquake in a location where the land value is higher than many other districts of Istanbul. This study's research question is whether or not the survival of this residential housing community could be attributed to residential satisfaction. The study's research method was a residential satisfaction survey and factor analyses. The results showed that the continued existence of the residential community in the midst of the urban transformation movement is because the community satisfied its residents' needs for safety, centrality, and neighbourliness.