Urban Scenes of a Port City: Exploring Beautiful İzmir through Narratives of Cosmopolitan Practices

This dissertation is an invitation to the reader to explore Güzel İzmir / Beautiful İzmir in Turkey. Through three different semi-fictional narratives, it aims to draw attention to specific and singular spaces as they were recorded and remembered through old postcards, black and white photographs, stories, and written travelogues in the past...

Architectures of the Intertwined East and West: Contact Zones of the 19th Century Izmir House

İzmir, amongst Eastern Mediterranean port cities, has represented compelling architectural and urban developments during the long nineteenth century. Due to their particular geographical position, the port city of İzmir has been considered a place where "East meets West". Building on what Edward Said calls intertwined history, this paper...

Port City Architecture: Reading Paintings as an Architectural Design Method

This article addresses the role and the importance of the 19th-century narratives and depictions of port cities in contemporary architectural design with a specific focus on paintings. In the last decades, cities the world undertook a large number of urban regeneration projects along waterfronts. In this way, vacant sites on waterfront areas...

Space, Representation and Practice in the Formation of Izmir During the Long Nineteenth Century

From elite decision-makers to sailors, migrants have long followed trade flows and contributed to the emergence of spatial and cultural patterns in port cities. Connecting the actual places of the port with the representation of these spaces and the practices of cosmopolitan port families, this contribution explores how the interactions of human...

Spatial Stories of Izmir: A Narrative Study on the Influence of Trader Families on the Spatial Development of the Port City

In March 2020, UNESCO received a submission regarding to the cultural value of Izmir. Izmir is an East Mediterranean port city, located on the western coastline of present-day Turkey, which has been a significant hub in international trade throughout its history especially during the nineteenth century. Commerce brought merchants from all over...

Architecture culture formation in Turkey: The role of the competitions in transnational exchanges in the case of izmir

Architecture and urban design competitions played an essential role in the formation of the Turkish architecture culture. It contributed in particular to modern architecture in Turkey (1923-1950s). Turkish modern architecture in the modern era emerged especially from a transnational exchange with the German speaking world. The city of Izmir in...

Narrative as a tool for dialogue between past and future of a port city

Learning From Waterfront Regeneration Projects and Contemporary Design Approaches of European Port Cities

This paper analyses the processes and approaches of waterfront regenerations in Europe and aims to evaluate the implementations. There are some common processes and cross-cultural transactions between port cities, as all port cities have to respond to the same functions to be part of the network. Since ports were interrelated, architectural...

The lost identity of Izmir

Port cities are distinguished from other cities by their waterfronts, which were shaped by economic and cultural transactions between each city and its networks. Trade-related activities prepared the conditions for accelerated globalisation with economic changes. The Ottoman Empire supported commerce and production in Western Anatolia after 16th...