Possible solutions for informal housing settlements in Turkey

Abstract

Despite the fact that all developing countries are different in kind and quality, all have problems and needs regarding the provision of decent and sanitary housing for their growing populations and this requirement constitutes one of the major problems for the governments of these countries. Many cities in the developing world suffer from regional imbalance. Migration from rural to urban areas has ended up with huge population growth in urban areas and eventually informal housing areas, or squatter settlements, have become a fact of life. In the case of Turkey, the squatter settlements spread across the face of the country's urban areas while initially developed to meet the housing needs of the mushrooming population they have become a vehicle for illicit profit taking. So, despite the fact that the squatter neighborhoods have increased the amount of housing available, they have also developed into tools for land speculation, thus acting as a barrier to the development of viable alternatives. Today, squatter settlements in Turkey as in developing countries reflect social, economical and environmental problems with their changing identities. In this process they must be seen as a formation which should be discussed by architects, planners, engineers, psychologist, economists or politicians, and some solutions, projects must be developed. This paper concentrated on discussion for solutions to informal housing in Turkey. The main objectives are to examine possible solutions and to reach valuable results in the scope of the findings. Initially squatter settlements in Turkey are described in general terms. Then legal and planning dimensions which have been implemented since 1950 are discussed. Among the planning measures that would be utilized following the passing of suitable laws are those which can be discussed under the headings of upgrading, prevention, and elimination. In relation to this approaches examples from Turkey and from other developing countries have been cited. The second section of this work includes a discussion of the applied research studies presented in "Housing for the Urban Poor" workshops held within the framework of the Med Campus Housing Network. This section briefly summarize the descriptions of the PYnar Squatter Settlement and the solutions suggested for the problems identified at the settlement. The last section uses the experimental work of the study to arrive at nation-wide level solutions for the squatter problem in Turkey.