+ BACKGROUND, CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES
Today's Istanbul walls are Byzantine walls that underwent various repairs in later periods and are known as Theodosius II walls. The land walls of 14 km, built by Theodosius between the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn, have stood since the Byzantine period, and witnessed the deep-rooted past of the Historic Peninsula. The land walls starting from Yedikule on the Marmara coast to Ayvansaray on the Golden Horn coast and encircling the Historical Peninsula from the west was surrounded by many reigns from Avars to Arabs, from Huns to Pechenegs, from Bulgarians to Hungarians, from Crusaders to Ottomans and each siege left phenomenal traces on it. The city walls, which have hosted many civilizations, are one of the most valuable works of Fatih that should be protected with their admirable universal values.
The walls inevitably succumbed to the passage of time, ultimately resulting in partial destruction, holding high prospects to be renovated and reintroduced to the city. Due to the historical walls and the surrounding areas having become ramshackled and distressing in both urbanization and social development terms, threatening the security of the city. According to the public opinion polls conducted by Fatih Municipality, these areas are the neighborhoods where urban security problems are the most severe and many citizens express that they are hesitant to visit this area. For this reason, the walls and their surroundings are further dissociated from the urban area daily and breed urban crimes.
Despite the walls being a cultural heritage, they have remained far from being protected in this state and have become the residence of the homeless. It is extremely important to increase the quality of not only the city walls, but also the surrounding urban areas and to tackle the challenges in the corresponding range integrally. The starting point of this project is to abolish the non-authorized structures in the surrounding of the city walls, to rehabilitate the area that has been severed from both social and urban space and creates areas of fear, to preserve our cultural heritage and succeed it to the future generations.
One of the most important challenges of the project is that the Land Walls World Heritage Site and its Surroundings have incredibly complex property arrangements. In order for the walls and their surroundings to be cleared of slum areas, it is necessary to negotiate with each owner individually and the assets should be expropriated. Launched by Fatih Municipality in 2017, within the scope of the Expropriation of the Surroundings of the Historical City Walls and Removal of Slums in the Region Project, 27,121 m² of land has been expropriated and 191 slums have been demolished to date. Within the scope of the project, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Housing Development Administration by purchasing 116 residential units from TOKİ, citizens living in the region were provided with higher quality residences.
The process, which started with the clearing of the city walls and their surroundings from the slum areas, continues with the Suriçi Garden Project. With the project, an area of 226,121 m² with a length of 4.5 km along the land walls from Yedikule to Topkapı will be arranged as a national garden. The 1st and 2nd stage projects of the project, which will be completed in a total of 5 stages, have been approved by the board.
A total area of 226,121 m² will be added to the city, with 61,360 m² in the 1st phase, 47,860 m² in the 2nd phase, 68,206 m² in the 3rd phase, 25,055 m² in the 4th phase and 23,640 m² in the 5th phase. While the 1st stage was being designed, regions that would serve different functions such as tourism-focus, socio-cultural focus, recreation-focus, as well as neighborhood-integration-focuses that would provide the integration of the national garden and urban living spaces were defined.
An area of 4,680 m² of the project, which will include many different equipment and functions, is designed as a recreation area, while an area of 315 m² is designed as an open-air fitness area. In addition, there will be a skateboarding track in the 1st Stage project area, which will include 2 basketball courts and 2 tennis courts. In addition to the sports areas, functional areas that will serve different social groups have also been designed. At the forefront of these are various function areas such as children's library, children's play workshops, bicycle parks, women's labor sales units, handcraft courses and thematic garden areas.
During the project phase, important historical and cultural structures located close to the city walls are recorded and architectural survey projects are prepared for each historical structure. Thus, in addition to improving the city walls and the surrounding area and increasing the urban quality, all the historical and cultural heritage values in the vicinity are protected.
The aim of the project is to highlight the historical and cultural identity of the Historic Peninsula Land Walls and Surroundings, which are on the World Cultural Heritage list, and to improve the quality of life by improving the spatial conditions. The objectives of the project are to be used by different users (local people, foreign visitors, etc.) together with the recreational and functional areas to be created around the land walls, the preservation of the historical identity of the land walls by emphasizing them, reducing security problems in the region, with the other features to be included in the project, meeting the social facilities and green spaces needs of the region and the district, alleviating the shortage of transportation means in the region.
+ ACTIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION
The public opinion polls carried out by Fatih Municipality in 6-month periods were effective in the beginning of the project. The public opinion surveys were analyzed on the basis of neighborhoods and streets, and it was analyzed that the most critical issues in the neighborhoods with Land Walls located were ‘volatile security’ and ‘substance abusers’.
Participants living in other neighborhoods were informed that they avoided approaching the walls and its surroundings, were afraid to enter these areas in the late evening and did not engage with this area unless necessary. In the light of the information and data obtained from the public opinion survey, the issue of "security" was discussed and preparations for the Suriçi Garden Project began. The expropriation activities that started in slum areas in 2017 were the first step of the project.
In the ongoing process, “Service Impact Assessment Researches” were conducted with the citizens at certain periods and the results supporting the project were attained. In a public survey conducted in the last quarter of 2021, text messages were disseminated to 140,000 people living in Fatih and requested a response in which projects and activities Fatih Municipality should invest more in 2022. The two most prominent issues from the answers provided by the citizens were “urban security” and “green spaces”. Suriçi Garden Project is in respect with the demands of the citizens, both to meet the green space needs of the region and to eradicate the urban security threats in the region.
+ REPLICABILITY AND SCALABILITY
The three basic elements of this project can be repeated by other institutions and organizations.
1. Public-Citizen Cooperation: Shaping the strategic decisions about the future of the district with the participation of citizens is the most important part of the process. The public should understand the users and develop strategies and projects for the complaints, demands, perceptions and expectations of the users.
2. Public Opinion Surveys: The survey method is one of the most effective ways to analyze the perceptions and expectations of users about the city.
3. Transferring the Surveys to the Space: It is important to develop strategies and projects in order to identify which sub-regions are more concentrated in the concerns addressed by the users and to enforce strong implementation in the respective regions.
In the whole process, the indicated elements can be replicated and applied by various public institutions and organizations.
