**2. The change of urban renewal pattern**

The urban renewal projects of the nineteenth century focused on solving the problems of industrial cities, as well as sustaining the healthy and livable areas. The context of urban renewal projects dramatically changed especially after World War II. After the WW II, many cities of European countries faced problems such as economic decline, environmental destruction, and social dereliction. It is known that the State concentrates on the urban redevelopment, as well as the urban renewal, downtown revitalization, reconstruction of demolished areas, and public housing programs. Furthermore, the economic benefits of the urban redevelopment projects are also attention-grabbing for the investors and the State. Large amount of profit can be made by selling new and modern units at the city centers. The increase observed in the population density necessitates an increase in the employment opportunities. Moreover, it also accelerates the modernization process of city centers. Furthermore, it also became a tool for the state in order to prevent the inner cities from urban decline [8]. Thus, the main objective of the renewal projects in this period was to sustain the job opportunities by creating the flagship projects located at the older parts of the city centers, as well as increasing the demands for these areas.

The main focus of the urban renewal projects before the 1960s was on the eradication of the landscape observed after the WW II. Within the scope of these projects, the destructed and old houses were cleared off and the reconstruction process was initiated. The increase observed in the highway construction, on the other hand, created an increase in the number of cars owned. Because of these results, many residents left their homes. As a result of this process, many new problems emerged such as the relocation of residents. However, during this process, the commercialization of the city centers also increased and the number of people living in the residential areas decreased as a result of the displacement policies and suburbanization. Moreover, the importance given to protecting the cultural and

*Landscape Reclamation - Rising From What's Left*

formation of urban landscapes, the data related with the socio-cultural structure is

From this aspect, the social, economic, environmental, natural and technological transformations also affect the urban area and, thus, the urban landscape constantly changes. The industrial revolution and also the population growth in the late nineteenth century accelerated the process of change. In the recent years, the economic developments but especially the neoliberalism placed the cities into the focus of the economy. The neoliberal policies are known to have spatial consequences [4]. As a coherent and long-term strategy arising from the neoliberal perspective, the production and consumption of the urban and metropolitan territories are debated. "Planning through the urban "projects" has been developed

under the significant influence, as well as the physical structure.

**16**

**Figure 1.**

*Methodological diagram of the study.*

natural heritage raised awareness about the historical locations at the city centers. After this Then, evaluating the existing large number of vacant housing stock in historical districts in inner cities became an important approach in the urban renewal agendas. Thus, the urban renewal performed during the aforementioned period can be called "urban rehabilitation" [9].

At the end of the 1970s, the inner city problems, especially depending on economic decline and environmental decay caused restless in societies. Depending on job losses and increases in the rents of houses, an increase was observed in the number of homeless people [10, 11]. The number of urban regeneration projects arose in the inner parts of the cities, where the economic decline, environmental decay, community dereliction, growing unemployment, and some social problems are observed [12]. The urban renewal projects aim to revitalize the old city centers. The common properties of urban renewal projects between the 1960s and 1970s were their comprehensiveness [13]. The urban renewal projects strategies refer to the social and physical rehabilitation of ancient areas in city centers.

Besides the effects of neoliberal political-economic factors, environmental factors too were important after the 1980s while implementing urban renewal projects strategies. According to Knox (1991), there are two important movements that have transformed the economic and socio-cultural structure of societies since the 1980s and they also influenced the urban renewal projects in the built environment of cities. The first among them was the transition from the Fordism (mass consumption and production) to the advanced capitalism concepts such as flexible accumulation, post-Fordism, and postmodernism. The second movement was based on "a philosophical, cultural and attitudinal differentiation from the modernism to the postmodernism" [14]. By making use of these concepts, Knox reported that the new urban patterns and landscapes are created by the relationships between the demand/ consumption and the supply/production. The urban decline areas emerged in the built environment because of the changes observed in the demand and supply circuit. The changes in production also reconstructed the occupational structures. The advertising agencies, financial services, media specialists became new popular sectors for the last two decades. These sectors created a new bourgeoisie and also gained a place at the heart of the cities. The employees working at these industries moved from the suburbs to the city centers. The preservation of the old city quarters also attracts these groups and, thus, the gentrification became an inevitable consequence [14].

The tendencies for historic preservation, gentrification, or postmodern architecture became popular in the reformation of the built environment after the 1980s. These terms can be seen as the most visible reflections of the new policies of the new world order in the built environment. Similarly, the slums, old industrial quarters, and the old neighborhoods located at the city center were placed at the focus of the renewal projects of the neoliberal economy. Even though the urban renewal is not a new phenomenon that has emerged in the neoliberal era, the cities and rescaling projects became the key instruments for the entrepreneurial strategies aiming the economic success since the 1980s. The interests of the companies are determined in accordance with these strategies put into realization by the partnership between private and public sectors.

The urban renewal projects were the prominent urban strategy instruments in the 1990s, especially in the European countries, and these projects have been put into practice mainly for the revitalization, improvement, and preservation of the historical city centers or the industrial and commercial centers [15]. Keleş also stated that, over the last 20 years, the concept of regeneration turned from a physical definition into a more complex set of propositions that combine the social, cultural and economic objectives. In the majority of these regeneration projects, a significant amount of urban employment has been created [16].

**19**

**Table 1.**

*Project-Based Urban Renewal and Transformation of Urban Landscape in Turkey*

caused the deepening social exclusion and deprivation (**Table 1**).

The production methods and employment structure have also transformed and this transformation has also brought have new requirements from the aspect of urban systems. The traditional local economic progress became weaker because of the knowledge-based economy, negligence of the local interest, as well as the economic globalization. On the other hand, these factors also strengthened the effects of the external factors on the urban development. For instance, because of the globalization, the economic and cultural bonds in the city weakened and this

The cities of today promote themselves as a "world city," "global city," "knowledge city," "creative city," etc., in an entrepreneurial and competitive way. From the aspect of the competing cities, the neoliberal urban strategies such as privatization of public spaces, large-scale urban projects, residential housing projects, large-scale advertising and promotion campaigns of cities, highly speculative flagship or mega projects, dissemination of imaginary and brand cities, commodification of city centers, new consumerist practices of cities, and promotion of cosmopolitan city-

In literature, the urban renewal projects refer to a process of remodeling the urban areas by the means of rehabilitation, conservation, and redevelopment. The urban renewal projects are put into practice in various ways. The main urban renewal strategies can be exemplified as *urban revitalization, urban redevelopment,* 

The *urban redevelopment* refers to destructing the existing buildings and changing the land use at that location [25]. However, the redevelopment approach also refers to the implementation of new projects replacing the existing building stock, which are in severely deteriorated status and have no preservation value or in which the arrangement of buildings cannot provide the satisfactory living conditions [8]. Moreover, this approach added new functional characteristics in order to revitalize the project area more from social and economic aspects. Generally, the redevelopments include the reconstruction of new buildings on the cleared land.

1950 The rebuilding of new urban uses for the replacement of old uses, the elimination of physical problems from the past and cities often based on a master plan, suburban growth

Acceptance of the link between physical deterioration and social distortion,

1990 Move toward a more comprehensive form of policy and practice more emphasis on integrated

Revitalization, improvement, and preservation of historical city centers or industrial and

1960 Continuation of the 1950s approach. Suburban rehabilitate, peripheral growth

1970 Give priority to urban improvement and urban renewal projects

Visible reflections of new policies of new world orders

2000 The change in the concept of urban renewal from the "urban project"

Market-led and project-based development

Projects focused on social problems 1980 Major schemes of development and redevelopment Flagship projects downtown and outside Cooperation with the public-private sector

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84391*

center lifestyle come to the forefront [18–23].

*urban rehabilitation and urban regeneration* [24].

**2.1 Urban renewal projects**

**Period Urban renewal pattern**

treatments

commercial centers

*The evaluation of urban renewal in Western countries [17].*

#### *Project-Based Urban Renewal and Transformation of Urban Landscape in Turkey DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84391*

The production methods and employment structure have also transformed and this transformation has also brought have new requirements from the aspect of urban systems. The traditional local economic progress became weaker because of the knowledge-based economy, negligence of the local interest, as well as the economic globalization. On the other hand, these factors also strengthened the effects of the external factors on the urban development. For instance, because of the globalization, the economic and cultural bonds in the city weakened and this caused the deepening social exclusion and deprivation (**Table 1**).

The cities of today promote themselves as a "world city," "global city," "knowledge city," "creative city," etc., in an entrepreneurial and competitive way. From the aspect of the competing cities, the neoliberal urban strategies such as privatization of public spaces, large-scale urban projects, residential housing projects, large-scale advertising and promotion campaigns of cities, highly speculative flagship or mega projects, dissemination of imaginary and brand cities, commodification of city centers, new consumerist practices of cities, and promotion of cosmopolitan citycenter lifestyle come to the forefront [18–23].
