THROUGH THE SKY: VERTICAL GATED DEVELOPMENTS IN INSTANBUL
By Aliye Ahu Gülümser, Tüzin Baycan-Levent

The right to the city: the entitled and the excluded - The Urban Reinventors, Special issue, November 2009

The trend of gated communities has been observed in Istanbul since the 1980s. The economic and political changes, and the appearance of a new social class, have caused this new trend in the housing market to emerge. Four types of gated developments viz., ‘vertical gated development-gated towers’, ‘horizontal gated development-gated villa towns’, ‘horizontal gated development-gated apartment blocks’ and ‘mixed type gated development-gated towns’ have been developed in Istanbul on both the European and Asian sides.

Of these four types, vertical gated developments are the newest and the most effective regarding to their land use and services. These are found in the inner city, especially in the Central Business District (CBD) and are typically home to apartments, malls, entertainment and offices. The aim of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of gated communities on the basis of vertical gated developments and to evaluate the consequences of these kinds of developments for the urban environment. The data used for evaluation are based on information gathered from in depth interviews with developers and constructors of vertical gated communities. The paper addresses the production and marketing processes of vertical gated developments from the perspective of developers and constructors [...]

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Aliye Ahu Gülümser is research assistant and PhD student in urban and regional planning at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Department of Urban and Regional Planning. She received her MSc. in the field of Regional Planning from Istanbul Technical University in 2005. Her main research interests cover urban and regional planning, rural development, suburbanization, entrepreneurship and diversity. In the past years she has focused her research in particular on rural entrepreneurship and rural development. She is member of the Regional Science Association International and the Regional Studies Association. She is currently at the Free University, Amsterdam as a guest researcher to study on her PhD.

Tüzin Baycan Levent is Associate Professor in urban and regional planning at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Department of Urban and Regional Planning. She received her Ph.D. in the field of Regional Planning from Istanbul Technical University in 1999. Her main research interests cover urban and regional planning, urban systems, sustainable development, environmental issues and diversity and multiculturalism. In the past years she has focused her research in particular on urban economics and ethnic entrepreneurship. She has published a number of international articles in these fields. She is member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Sustainable Society and A/Z ITU Journal of Faculty of Architecture and the Advisory Board of Studies in Regional Science. She is also member of the Regional Science Association International, the Turkish National Committee of Regional Science and the Turkish National Committee of Coastal Zone Management.

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