**5. Recent development: Northern part of the city's backbone – specialised CBDs in a globalising metropolis**

Starting between 1980 and 1990 a *second take-off* of the city's size, structure and position took place in Istanbul (see Fig. 3). The result nowadays is a booming metropolis (Güvenc 2010), a *city too big to fail* (Urban Age, 2009), with more than 13 million inhabitants in the metropolitan areas (the district Istanbul). The basic power for this development is Istanbul's *primary city function*, which can be demonstrated as follows: 86% of Turkey's headquarters are located in Istanbul and half of the 500 great industrial estates. The city shares 35% of the


The *industrialisation* brought Istanbul back to the prime position among Turkey's cities and even before the fall of the iron curtain (1989) tremendous numbers of tourists from the socalled *socialist states* did their shopping tours in Istanbul. It was the time of *luggage trade* with the wholesale of western products at cheap prices. The low prices of Turkish goods are

related to low wages for the working people in comparison to central Europe.

Photo 4. Road and shops in Şişli's Golden Triangle near the Osmanbey metro station. Founded in the 1970s, the area has become the most fashionable shopping district

**5. Recent development: Northern part of the city's backbone – specialised** 

Starting between 1980 and 1990 a *second take-off* of the city's size, structure and position took place in Istanbul (see Fig. 3). The result nowadays is a booming metropolis (Güvenc 2010), a *city too big to fail* (Urban Age, 2009), with more than 13 million inhabitants in the metropolitan areas (the district Istanbul). The basic power for this development is Istanbul's *primary city function*, which can be demonstrated as follows: 86% of Turkey's headquarters are located in Istanbul and half of the 500 great industrial estates. The city shares 35% of the

*Trans-Bosporus-Istanbul*, the Kadiköy CBD (see Fig. 1).

north of that area.

nowadays, 2010, "S" in Fig. 1.

**CBDs in a globalising metropolis** 

consequent reaction to the demand from a growing upper middle class only at Şişli and

state's commercial and service activities and contributes 43% to Turkey's tax revenues. Most of the foreign banking institutions in Turkey and most of the private universities are located in the city. More than half of Turkey's exports and imports take place in Istanbul and about 7.6 million tourists and shoppers from abroad (2009 approximately, 22% of Turkey's tourism) visited Istanbul. The relation *services:industry* in the formal sector is 62:38 (Istanbul Chamber of Commerce 2009). Istanbul is still a goods producing city, beneath the growth of the financial sector and related variables (which indicates a post-industrial and globalised structure). The revenues of the relevant employees rose and a new middleclass has now been created. Their new lifestyle is oriented on real estate as well as on consumer attitudes: 60 shopping malls were built in Istanbul between 2000 and 2005.

What does this mean in relation to *CBD development* within the last decade? At first, the tremendous growth of the metropolis is fragmented by different functions and levels.

The dominant new CBD structures are located in the middle part of the metropolis, *continuing the CBD chain with a north bound axis*; see Fig. 1. The region north of the "triangle" in Şişli is characterised by four facts:


Photo 5. Konus-Hypermarket and Apartment-complex, Levent. Globalised aspects of architecture and lifestyle, "L" in Fig. 1.

Istanbul's Backbone - A Chain of Central Business Districts (CBDs) 213

Summarising the different functions of the *chain of CBDs in Istanbul* – as shown in Fig. 1 – one can detect globalised and at least transnational aspects in each of them, as pointed out in

Starting with the *traditional core,* it should be mentioned that this has been designated a UNESCO *world heritage site since 1985*. Istanbul's *brand awareness* is strongly related to the shape of the historic city which turned into a global touristic attraction. Characterised by

At the other end of the *backbone of the metropolis,* clusters of *skyscrapers* at *Levent and Maslak* are the metaphors for the city's powerful financial sector, post-modern and globalised at the same time. Their silhouettes contrast with those of the Ottoman minarets and the city's logo attempts to combine that. Vertical gated communities (apartment towers) and exclusive hypermarkets (e.g. Konus, leave Metro at Levent) are mixed with the office towers in that

Photo 7. Maslak from south, Büyükdere Cad. Office towers right, vertical gated city left.

Northern end of the chain of CBDs, "M" in Fig. 1.

**6. Conclusion: Chain of CBDs revisited** 

Traditional core, world heritage site

CBD area. Documented by Photos 6-7.

the following.

Photos 1, 2.

Banking and Finance CBD


Within that *Taksim to Maslak axis* the most recent CBD developments have taken place. Important to notice is the *spatial disaggregation* of the different types of new services. The financial CBD is spatially isolated from the city's shopping areas. The huge buildings signalize another proximity: that one to the *global financial market*. The financial sector created the office clusters at Levent (L) and Maslak (M) (Photo 7) and consumer services are concentrated at the "*triangle*" in Şişli (S).

Photo 6. At the crossroads: central motorway (left to right) crosses the main axis of the CBD chain, dominant building: Tat tower, Levent left, behind. Gayrettepe 2010, "G" in Fig. 1.
