Kent Ve Kentli Kimliğinin Günümüz Konut Lansmanları Üzerinden Okunması: İstanbul'daki Son Dönem Kapalı Konut Siteleri

Abstract

Konut; insan yaşamının en temel ihtiyaçlarından biri olan barınma ihtiyacını karşılamak üzere üretilmiş yapılardır. Günümüzde alt gelir grubundaki insanlar için halen bu anlamı ifade eden konut, alım gücüyle paralel olarak tercih imkanı olan orta ve üst gelir grubu için bir tüketim nesnesi ve karlı bir yatırım amacı haline gelmiştir. 1980’lerde yaygınlaşan neoliberal ekonomi politikaları ile birlikte ‘konut’ artık bir ihtiyaç olmaktan öte, özellikle küresel dünya metropolleri için ekonominin temellendiği bir anahtar sektör haline gelmiştir. Tüketici eğilimleri gerçek gereksinmelere yanıt verecek nitelikteki konutlardan çok, geniş, pahalı ve hatta lüks konutlara yönelmiş ve bu eğilim, kentleşmenin ve gösterişçi tüketim kültürünün de bir göstergesi olmuştur. Daha önceki endişeler bir barınağa (a roof of the head) sahip olmak içindi, oysa modern konut talebi alışveriş, ulaşım, eğitim, sağlık, sosyal yaşantı ve eğlenceyi (rekreasyon) içeren şehir hizmetlerinin kalitesini ve alanını geliştirmiştir. Bu süreçte ortaya çıkan villalar, rezidanslar, kapalı konut siteleri gibi güvenlik duvarlarıyla çevreden izole edilmiş ve herkesin giremediği konut türleri, seçkin kesimin yerleşim alanları olarak pazarlanmaya başlamıştır. İstanbul genelinde son dönemde orta ve üst gelir grubuna yönelik olarak üretilen konutların neredeyse tamamı dışa kapalı konut sitesi şeklinde üretilmektedir. Bu arza paralel olarak söz konusu sosyo-ekonomik kesimin de son yıllarda konut tercihlerinde ağırlıklı olarak güvenlikli kapalı konut sitelerine rağbet ettiklerini gözlemlemekteyiz. İlk dönemlerinde ‘güvenlik’ ihtiyacı ile ortaya çıkan bu sitelere son yıllarda gösterilen talepte gayrımenkul şirketlerinin vaad ettikleri sosyal donatılar, çocuk oyun alanları, deprem dayanıklılığı gibi faktörlerin yanı sıra medya ve reklamlar yoluyla lanse edilen ‘statü’ ve ‘prestij’ algısı da önemli bir tercih sebebi haline gelmiştir. Yeni şehircilik akımının tipik dokusunu oluşturan kapalı konut yerleşimlerinin tarihi aslında şehirlerin ortaya çıkışı kadar eskilere dayanmaktadır. Bu kapalı toplulukların kökleri İngiltere’de M.Ö. 300’lere kadar uzanmaktadır. Yine M.Ö. 300’lerde Romalı askerlere ordudaki hizmet sürelerini tamamladıktan sonra, geniş ve korunaklı yeşil alanlar içinde araziler ve malikaneler verilmekteydi. İlerleyen zamanlarda işgalcilere ya da iç savaşlara karşı korunma amacıyla kaleler yapılmıştır. Günümüz kapalı konut yerleşimlerinin ortaçağ şehirleri ile benzer özellikler gösterdiğini söylemek mümkündür. Aralarındaki fark sınıfsal ayrımın temellendiği olgulardır. Ortaçağ kentlerinde soylular ve asiller ile halk arasında var olan sınıfsal ayrım postmodern dönemle birlikte ortadan kaldırılmış, yerine küreselleşmenin de etkisiyle alım gücü ve gösterişçi tüketim kültürü üzerinden yeni bir sınıfsal ayrım oluşturulmuştur. Bugünkü kapalı konut siteleri tüm dünyada ekonomik gücün ve statünün bir göstergesi olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Bu algının oluşmasında küresel medyanın çok önemli bir rolü olduğunu söylemek mümkündür. Aynı şekilde Türkiye’de de bu ithal kültürün yayılmasında özellikle 1980’lerde renkli televizyonun gelmesi ve özel kanalların yaygınlaşmasıyla beraber küresel medyanın önemli bir etken olduğu, medyanın küresel kültürün aynılaştırıcı etkilerini yaygınlaştırdığı ve tüketim eğilimi ve tercihleri üzerinde yönlendirici bir etkisi olduğu belirtilmiştir. Bu tez çalışması kapsamında yukarıda özetlenen kavramsal çerçeve üzerinden, bugün artık bir dünya kenti olan İstanbul’da son dönemde üretilen konut projelerine odaklanılmıştır. Araştırma sürecinde bir kesit olarak ele alınan Ekim 2014 – Nisan 2015 tarih aralığında, İstanbul’da yapılan ve satış aşamasında olup bir ya da birkaç kez lansmana çıkan kapalı konut siteleri tespit edilmiş, bu konutların yazılı, görsel ve sosyal medya üzerinden yaptıkları reklamlar incelenmiş, pazarlama aşamasında tüketiciyi çekmek için kullanılan sloganlar üzerinden kavramsal analizler yapılmıştır. Bu analizlerle beraber piyasa aktörleri arasından seçilen 10 adet şirket temsilcisinin de görüşleri alınarak, bu yeni konut tarzının kent ve kentli üzerinde yarattığı olumlu ve olumsuz etkiler ortaya konmuştur.

Housing is a structure made to meet the need for shelter, which is one of the most basic needs of human life. Today, having the same meaning for the people of the lower income group – the housing - have become an object of consumption and a profitable investment tool, in parallel with the purchasing power of possibility to choose for middle and upper income groups. Widespread in the 1980s together with the neo-liberal economic policies, the 'housing' is now beyond just being a need and has become a key sector that the economy based, for especially global world metropoles. The consumer trends have been shifting from qualified housing that meet the real needs - towards luxurious housing that is very large and expensive, which is an indicator of urbanization and the culture of conspicuous consumption. The previous concerns used to be for the sake of owning a shelter ‘a roof over the head’, whereas recently the demand for modern housing have improved the quality and space of the city services that include shopping, transportation, education, health, social life and entertainment (recreation) facilities. In this period, the emerging villas, residences, such as gated communities were isolated from its environment by separate walls with the security surveilance and began to be marketed as an ‘elite’ residential sites, where not everyone had the privelege to enter. Recently, the housing projects in Istanbul are being built for the middle and upper income groups, and almost all of them are closed to the outside. In parallel to this supply, we observe that the socio-economic segments in recent years are influenced by heavily preferred housing sites that mainly are ‘gated communities’. In the beginning periods these sites emerged for the 'security' needs, and in recent years the real estate companies been advertising gated community projects with such promises as children's play areas, earthquake resistance, social status and prestige, which became an important reason for preference. “The history of the gated communities that are forming the typical texture of the New Urbanism movement, in fact is based on the old until the emergence of the cities.” The roots of the gated community in the UK extend up to 300 BC. Again, in 300 BC after the Roman soldiers completed their military service in time: they were given green and vast sheltered lands and estates. In later periods the castles were made with the protection purpose against occupants or civil war. It is possible to say that the gated communities that we have today are similar to the gated communities since the medieval ages. The differences between them based on class distinctions, as a fact. The class divisions in the medieval towns that existed between noble aristocrats and commoners were all together eliminated with the postmodern period, and instead the impact of globalization with its purchasing power and conspicuous consumption culture have taken place creating a new class distinction. Today’s gated communities all around the world are perceived as an indicator of the economic power and social status. The global media has the main role in the formation of these perceptions. Likewise in Turkey the global media was an important factor with the spread of this imported culture (especially in the 1980s) with the arrival of color television and proliferation of its private channels, which was the global media-affecting consumer to prefer and copy the globalized culture by dissemination of consumption trends. As outlined above, based on the conceptual framework in this thesis work, recently emerged housing sites in Istanbul are taken under scrutiny. Within the scope of the framework focusing on how the new housing promotional format is affecting the city and urban identity, which is leading towards the hypothesis that the marketing of these recent housing projects named as ‘gated residencies’ is actually an introduction of a new urban profile to the potential costumers. Today consumers are no longer buying just the 'house'. The gated communities in Istanbul are not much different from each other based on their interior organizational points, however the promotional messages declare that the person is purchasing a new life and a new urban identity together with the new home. The process has produced a new 'elite' profile. In this context, first of all, the enclosed housing estates with such description names as 'gated communities', 'gated enclaves' have been transferred into classifications by various researchers in this field. Then, the emergence and development of this project with presentation formats, examined in world metropolises and Istanbul because they are the cities that are are the most commonly seen the effects of globalization. Then, the gated communities with high security that are recently spreading in Istanbul have been taken under investigation due to their strategic marketing points of view. First, the recent increase in the number of projects and distribution in numerical data was shown on the map covering of most of the Istanbul. As a result of repeated scans at periodic intervals between Oct 2014 - Apr 2015: 707 gated communities have been identified that are on sale in Istanbul, which have been launched one or a few times. Several real estate web-sites have collected information on housing projects and catalogues from the websites of the developers and builders. The obtained data has been put together in a table format. The collected information was organized according to the selection of various locations in Istanbul by considering: the size of the land, the types of housing, and the dates of projects’ completion. In the second stage of the implementation the projects’ media publicity slogans were compiled and separated according to the identity classification types that the slogans were targeting. Thus, it was examined which identity emphasis in marketing was used in order to reach the costumers. Afterwards, the data obtained and compared with the previous analysis. As a result, intervews were conducted with the representatives of 10 firms selected among construction firms. As a result of these analysis and evaluations it was examined as to why urban residents preferred housing projects buılt for high-income group. With the new urban pattern it was targeted to reveal the characteristics of the urban identity defined in the slogans for marketing and sales of the housing projects. Especially, the disscussion took place regarding the positive and negative effects that the new type of housing projects have had over city and urban identity. As a result of the research, it has been identified that the consumerism today is not happening just to meet the basic needs anymore, but it has become a way to express the ‘social class’ and a 'lifestyle' that comes with it. Accordingly, the consumption can be defined as a vehicle to express the distinction between people or social groups, which also create these differences all over again (Yanıklar, 2006). It is possible to say that in many parts of the world with the effect of globalization today the cities are under the influence of the conspicuous consumption culture. In this regard, the gated communities are the product of the popular new trend and security-oriented urbanism movement, which showing its effect all around the world nearly for thirty years now. Since the beginning of the 1990s such rhetoric as the 'gated communities' or ‘privately governed urban territories’ was ever increasing. The rapid rise of such residential sites had originated in the U.S.A. and Latin America. Considering the global samples of such phenomena, one of the basic factors of emergence of the gated communities were security and then the prestige. While the observation have shown that the situation in Turkey remained somewhat different. Because, as it is well known to us, the crime rates in Turkey and in Istanbul are not high compared to other countries. According to the interpretations of various researchers, the lifestyles marketed in Turkey are imported from abroad. Another effective approach in promoting and marketing of gated communities is the housing projects representing certain lifestyle and the feeling of dignity attached to it. Noticibly, the gated communities cater to a new type of consumer audience: by bringing the "lifestyle" rhetoric to the forefront, which is developed under free market conditions and marketed to middle and upper income groups. As a result of the study it has been identified that recently in Istanbul an intensive housing developments were completed, which mostly are promoted as gated communities. According to the site selection analysis of the newly built housing sites, it has been identified that the construction of new howsing projects are more intensive in the city center, compared to the vacant lands in the outskirts of the city. This is an indicator that the urban transformation activities within closed housing sector are mainly directed towards the middle and upper income groups. In residential buildings usualy apartment type of housing is mostly preferred, however, the mixed-use residence sites are also being built in combination with two or more types of housing such as villas, residences, home-offices. While determining the property type and combination ratios, the district of site location also is a decisive factor. According to the data obtained from analysis of the promotional slogans used in written and visual media: it is imperative first to convey to the target audience the feeling of 'private' and 'privileged'. In order to explain the conceptual type of housing, overall priority is emphasized on a word 'prestige' to be used in the promotional material wether hidden or openly. The concepts were grouped according to the kind of identity highlighted in promotional slogans used in the marketing of a new housing site, which revealed slogans that included individual and the social environment by emphasizing the socio-cultural identity. The global identity followed such concepts as: investment, prestige, grandeur, modern, luxury, comfort, space, and value. In third place, comes spatial identity that the project had identified through physical or architectural features. The housing projects that are marketed through the urban identity of Istanbul with its districts, traditional architecture and historical heritage are usually less in number. As a result of the conducted interviews, the general structure of Istanbul’s identity was defined as 'cosmopolitan'. In addition, attributes like 'the world city',' the brand city', and ‘metropolis' were also used. It was identified that the market actors have various concerns regarding the impact of the urban transformation on Istanbul's identity. Urban transformation has worrying effects on urban identity, but it has also become a necessity. It has been confirmed that the housing sector and especially the gated community sites have several positive or negative effects on the city and urban identity. Together with the walls of the newly built sites, the social disintegration had occurred. Through this separation a certain level of prosperity and standard of living was also obtained. At the same time it causes a physical separation in the city by destroying the concept of a public space. However, it was emphasized that a positive contribution was made for the upgrading of socio-cultural structure in the environment and to enhance the quality with public reinforcement. With a qualified construction concern it was targeted to improve the quality and to ensure the orderly development on a regional scale. Thus implicitly, it is indicated that a contribution was made to the Istanbul's identity and to its urban pattern.