- Mind The Fakes! Fast Forward Heritageisation in Large-Scale Thematic Housing Projects of Istanbul   click here to open paper content21 kb
by    Gunay, Zeynep | gunayz@itu.edu.tr   click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
The paper attempts to discuss heritageisation in reconstructing and promoting image of places, and examines the implications of fast forward heritageisation in Istanbul by demonstrating large-scale thematic housing projects as empirical evidence.
Abstract
In 2007, Turkish media has announced the start of the construction of “Bosphorus’ brother”. This was only one of the similar advertisements of large-scale thematic housing projects, the mounting of which we have been witnessing on the newspapers and billboards in Istanbul since the last decade. These advertisements have made apparent that the replication of historic environment is not only a part of conservation agenda any more, but also a part of urban marketing and particularly that of real-estate.

Regarding urban conservation, the reconstruction of historic environment via replication is a method that has been applied especially in Europe since the 19th century such as Warsaw. Recently, it has raised a growing interest in terms of reconstructing and promoting image of a place, even without a given historic value. Heritageisation may turn places into socially and economically attractive spaces for investment and tourism development. It may also show how cultural heritage is manipulated through the employment of selective histories, and it may lead to the creation of a packaged image of a “fake” historic environment simulation just as in Forum Shops of Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas or the Clone City of Hallstatt in Guandong. In a period when the image is the most important determining factor for urban competitiveness, it is not surprising for the real-estate sector to depend on such strategies.

Bearing in mind these fundamentals, the paper attempts to discuss the dynamics of heritageisation in reconstructing and promoting image of places, and examines the implications of employing fast forward heritageisation in Istanbul by demonstrating large-scale thematic housing projects –namely Bosphorus City and Viaport Venezia- as empirical evidence.
Keywords
Place-marketing, image-making, heritageisation, housing, thematic landscapes, Istanbul
Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2012: Fast Forward: Planning in a (hyper) dynamic urban context
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