The Unbearable Weight of Being a Metropolitan City An Evaluation of Istanbul's Urbanization Problems by Architecture Students…

This article includes sections from the original ideas and opinions of the term papers prepared by the students in the Urbanism-I course of the Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture, Maltepe University, Fall Semester 2017-2018. The subject of the term paper was determined as “The Unbearable Weight of Being a Metropolitan City” in order to discuss the spatial, economic, ecological and social problems created by the metropolitanization of Istanbul on the city. As a result of the readings and discussions made during the term, the articles were formed within the framework of the subheadings of “Vertical streets, To be on the shore or not to be!, Neighbor neighbor hu!, Come citizen, come!, Istanbul paved with gold soil, New residents of the old city, Do not touch my north, A Tale of Accessibility!” Metropolis means ‘mother city’ in its simplest sense. The Mother City is generally defined as “the most important city of a country or region that dominates the surrounding settlements in economic and social aspects and generally provides all kinds of relations of the country with other countries” (TDK, 2018). Today, in many developing countries, the attractiveness of urban life and the services/facilities it offers; the presence of job opportunities in many different sectors (due to the concentration of industry, trade and service sectors in cities) increases the interest in metropolises and therefore the inevitable migration. The rapid growth created by this intense wave of migration in the cities of developing countries also brings with it an unplanned development process. In order to ensure economic growth, investments made in metropolitan cities cause rapid population growth, slums, transportation, infrastructure and environmental problems in these cities, which have become the cornerstone of the country's economy (Keleş, 1996). Spatially, cities are affected by the economic, social and administrative changes and dynamics they are in. In Turkey, metropolitan cities, especially Istanbul, are affected by these processes and urban spaces are shaped accordingly (Ataöv and Osmay; 2007). As a metropolitan city with an increasing population day by day due to intense migration, Istanbul is trying to cope with many spatial, social, economic and ecological problems. Unplanned high-rise building policies in Istanbul, displacement processes that occur with urban transformation scenarios and their deepening of socio-spatial segregation, large-scale projects that are expected to negatively affect the ecological balance in the north of the city and in coastal areas, transportation and infrastructure problems, etc. are important problems.