- Culture Coming through Water and City/Inhabitant that does not live this Culture    132 kb by    Kýlýç, Ali & Akýn, Oya & Yerliyurt, Bora | oakin@yildiz.edu.tr    Short Outline The main objective of this study is to define the concept of urban waterfront and the distinctive culture of settlement concerning the waterfront. Tuzla (Istanbul) settlement has been chosen as a case study. Abstract Coast itself and the spatial, economic and socio-cultural structure which are formed by interacting with coast, have been the most important components of urban identity of Istanbul which is a waterfront settlement throughout the history. Beyond to be a visual richness, water -as a transportation platform, an economic source, and a socio cultural meeting platform - has determined the lifestyle of the settlements. This cultural diversity has exposed a different culture of settlement with a different pattern and typology even on the spatial structure. Changes in economics, politics and planning approaches caused an atmosphere that cities began to loose their originalities, in other words natural and cultural habitats after 1980’s. In this process, Istanbul has taken part by the fact of industrial production that decentralized to suburbs. Western and eastern Marmara coastal settlements were mostly affected by the industrial decentralization that were settled in this time of period. Leather industries, dockyards, refining industry are the most harmful industries that caused socio-cultural, demographic and spatial changes in these settlements in such high grades, so that they became estranged settlements although they were located at the waterfront. Being situated at the west coast of Istanbul, Tuzla is one of these settlements that is at the edge of loosing its originalities such as coastal geography, the relation between the sea and land etc. Transformation of it is worthy to analyze and a good example for the others that passed or is going to pass through the similar process. The main objective of this study is to expose the components of why the city and inhabitants became estranged to the coast(water) and to develop planning policies for regenerating culture coming through water. In this context, subject will be treated on 3 main sections; In the first section; social, economic, cultural and spatial reflections will be examined in the context of the relationships between water and the settlements formed until 1980’s. In the second section; the circumstance after 1980’s will be determined and the factors of the transformation process will be defined. And in the third section; exhibiting the outcomes, policies intended for the continuity of the coastal culture will be developed. Keywords urban waterfront, coastal culture, integration, identity Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper