Urban Development Process of Built Environments in Metropolitan Areas in Turkey: Case Study of Angora Settlement, Ankara

Abstract

The built environments of metropolitan areas are rapidly changing in response to urban development dynamics. The nature of the urban built environment continues to be influenced by the conflicting interests and expectations of various entities involved in the process of development planning and implementation. The formulation and implementation of urban development plans in Turkey is guided by the statutory provisions of the country’s planning system. This process has led to piecemeal implementation through partial plans and plan amendments in metropolitan areas. This article attempts to determine how the private sector in metropoles in Turkey shaped the built environment in Turkey after 1980. Influence of neo-liberal policies and a partial planning approach set by a free-market economy instead of a comprehensive planning approach shaped urban space. As a capital, the urban development of Ankara has mostly been shaped by partial planning approaches and implementations and uncontrolled developments, especially on the southwest axis of the city's metropolitan area. For this reason, one of the largest settlement of southwest Ankara is the Angora Settlement, which has been selected as the case study. Examining the entities who play a part in the urban development process is important to control its consequences. In this article, the case of Angora Settlement is used to question the planning process and entities in the development of urban built environments, and studies this settlement to identify and question which entities determine the components of the built environment in the urban development process. In particular, this paper captures the dominance of the structural interests of the private sector in shaping Angora’s land use pattern, which is important because it reveals the uncontrolled growth dynamics in developing countries.