Kent Surlarının Kent Dokusu Ve Kentsel Yaşamla Etkileşimi: Galata Kent Surları Örneği

Abstract

Kentlerin tarihsel gelişim sürecine referans veren yapılar, kentin geçmişi ile geleceği arasında bağ kuran kimlik öğeleridir. Savunma faktörünün önemli olduğu dönemlerde yapılmış olan kent surları, o dönemdeki kentin sınırlarını ifade etmesi yönüyle kent tarihi açısından önem taşımaktadır. Günümüze dek ulaşan sur kentleri “surları tamamen korunmuş, kısmen korunmuş ve korunamamış“ olmak üzere üç farklı nitelikte saptanabilir. Günümüzde oldukça az bir kısmının ayakta olduğu tespit edilen Galata Tarihi Ceneviz Surları, içinde yer aldığı kentsel çevredeki mevcut dokunun değişim ve gelişmesinde etkili olmuş, kentsel belleğin oluşmasında ve yaşatılmasında önemli ölçüde yönlendirici bir rol üstlenmiştir. Kentsel dokuda özellikle son yüzyılda gerçekleşen imar müdahaleleri, Galata Surları’nın önemli ölçüde tahrip olmasına neden olmuştur. Tüm bu olumsuz gelişmelere rağmen surlar bir takım izler bırakmıştır. Bu çalışmada, tarihi çevre içinde kent surlarının önemi ve bu eserlerin yeniden değerlendirilmesi konusuna odaklanılmaktadır. Tezin amacı, içinde yer aldığı tarihi kent dokularını vurgulayan kent surlarının, günümüz kent yaşamı ile bütünleştirilmesi, kent dokusu içinde görünürlük kazanması ve vurgulanmasının nasıl sağlanacağının tartışılması ve bu konuda öneriler geliştirilmesidir. Tezin hipotezi; tarihi kent dokuları içindeki kent surlarının ortaya çıkarılması, eğer kaybolmuşsa izlerinin belirtilmesi ve çevresi içinde vurgulu biçimde ifade edilmesi, o çevreye sosyal, ekonomik ve mekânsal açıdan katkı sağlayacak ve kent belleğinin güçlenmesine yardımcı olacaktır” ifadesiyle tanımlanmıştır. Tarihi eserlerin ortaya çıkarılması, yaşatılması ve çevresi içinde vurgulanması; kentsel kaliteyi artırmak için potansiyel taşıyarak, kentin devamlılığına, anlaşılmasına ve yerel kültürel kimliğinin yaratılmasına katkıda bulunacak mimari ve kentsel tasarım yaratıcılığına yeni fırsatlar sunacak ve kent merkezinin yeniden canlandırılması ve yenilenmesinde rol oynayacaktır. Ortaya konan amaç doğrultusunda tezin hazırlanmasında veri toplama yöntemi olarak, literatür araştırması, eski harita arşivleri taranması yapılmıştır. Tezde, anket, arazi tespitleri ve gözlem teknikleri ile veri analiz ve çözümleme yöntemleri kullanılmıştır. Sonuç olarak çalışmada, Galata kent Surları ve çevresinde yapılan tespit ve anket çalışmalarına bağlı olarak, tarihi kent dokularının en önemli elemanlarından biri olan kent surlarının ortaya çıkarılmasının, eğer kaybolmuşsa izlerinin belirtilmesinin ve çevresi içinde vurgulu biçimde ifade edilmesinin, çevreye sosyal, mekânsal açıdan katkı sağlayacağı ve kent belleğinin güçlenmesine yardımcı olacağı kanıtlanmıştır. Tezin Birinci Bölümü olan giriş bölümünde çalışmanın amacı, yöntemi ve kapsamı belirtilmiştir. İkinci bölümde; tarihsel süreç içinde kent surlarının gelişim süreci, kent dokuları üzerindeki etkileri ve süreç içinde öneminin nasıl azalmış olduğu konuları üzerinde durulmaktadır. Avrupa’da sur kentleri incelenerek korunma durumuna göre sınıflandırılma yapılmıştır. Üçüncü bölümde, Türkiye’deki koruma anlayışı incelenmiş, Galata kentsel dokusunda yer alan kent surlarına yönelik tarihsel gelişim süreci ve özellikle surlar ve çevresinin fiziksel durumunun tespitiyle ilgili analitik çalışmalar ve ortaya çıkan sonuçlar değerlendirilmiştir. Dördüncü bölümde, Galata Surları ve yakın çevresinde kullanıcı farkındalığı araştırması ve sonuçları ortaya konarak değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuç bölümünde ise, tez sonuçlarına yer verilmekte ve Galata Surlarının İstanbul tarihi kent merkezinin temel bileşenlerinden birisi haline getirilmesi ve kent yaşamıyla bütünleştirilmesine yönelik ilkeler ve öneriler ortaya konmaktadır.

In the present day, the protection, maintenance and sustainability of historical and cultural assets are acknowledged as the essential path lead to preservation of the assets. But the methods of preservation are still controversial. Nevertheless the concept of not only the protection but the adaptation of the assets to daily life and exhibition of them is widely being recognized. The balance of preservation/utilization/sustainability is acknowledged as an important policy and as the individuals experience the positive effects of this policy on their daily lifes, the success of the policy is established. The integration of historical assets to actual life, the accessibility of the assets and adequate ways of launching these assets are contributing to the public consciousness. It has been widely recognized that the preservation of public places as a combination of social, cultural, geographical and economic relations from different historical eras within sustainable social-economic environment provides a higher success rate. The area preservation provides an universal privilege. The protection of historical area and historical assets is a contemporary will and develops accordingly with the contemporary social culture. It does not only aim to transfer of ancient cultures to the future generations. It is very basics of life that the collection of past events is a fundamental source of future. To sustain a prosperous nation it is necessary to integrate the cultural identities of the nation with the new cultural areas. Rather than cities being historical, it is more crusial to preserve the history. The cultural and historical assets are now accepted as world heritage. In Turkey, as in many other developing countries, historical buildings are seen as “a problem” as opposed to civic improvement and considered to be “an issue to overcome” even though there is an increasing number of endeavor for the protection of them and urban persistence on an international platform and common sense to bring them into urban life. Worldwide studies of protection have been successfully carried out recently, especially thanks to the support and pressure of international establishments. However, the urban areas and civil engineering samples are not protected well enough and even some memorial structures such as city walls that reflects the history of the cities with its identity and limits have been destroyed due to “development”. One of the obvious examples to this adverse phase is the recent situation of the Walls of Galata that has taken many roles in İstanbul’s historical development process. This dilapidate presents the recent attitude of Turkey to protection. Therefore, the protection conscience and studies have been observed not to reach the expected level even though there is the feeling of general awareness towards protection issues. The structures, which addresses the historical development process of cities, are elements, which link the past and the future of the cities. The city walls, built during the eras in which the defence factor was important, have great importance by means of city history, because it expresses the borders of the city. The walls, which had, remain until today can be determined in three categories as “completely preserved”, “partly preserved” and “non-preserved”. Historical Genoese Walls of Galata, of which a very little part had remain until today, had had great effect on the transformation and the development of the urban environment in which it exists, and had taken a directive role in constitiution and preservation of urban memory. Construction interventions, which have been done during the last century, caused dramatic destructions to the Galata Walls. In spite of all the negative developments, there are some marks left from the Walls. This study focuses on the importance of city walls in historical environment and reuse of these historical artifacts. The aim of the thesis is the integration of the city walls, which emphasize the urban fabrics it have taken part in, to today’s urban life, gaining them visibility in urban fabric, arguing how to emphasize them and developing proposals in this manner. The hypothesis of the thesis is defined as; “the emphasize to the Walls in urban fabrics and if lost, the reveal and the expression of them, will contribute to that environment in social, economical and spatial means and will help the urban memory to strenghten.” The reveal the revitalization of historical artifacts and emphasize to them will play great role in urban continuity, urban understanding, providing new opportunities to the architectural and urban design creativism which will contribute to the creation of local cultural identity and the revitalization and the renewal of the urban city centre. In the direction of the aim of the thesis, literature search and historic maps search have been determined as the methods of data collecting. In the thesis, survey, land studies and observation methods and data analyzing methods are used. In this study, inside the Galata walls and its surroundings that were selected for experimental study field, in order to determine the physical features of the area and the walls, a study has been run in within structural scale in urban scale. In addition to that, people were surveyed in order to determine the people's awareness about Galata walls. The datas that were achieved were presented in a presentation with the methods of grafical show on the maps and survey analysis. In this thesis, relationships between the city walls that are located and protected in different levels in Europe and the cities that include these historical structures are mentioned. Also among cultural and historical artifacts, especially monumental artifacts that are actually city walls and its effects on daily life are presented. In the example of Galata walls, the answers that are about saving and protecting the historical artifacts which are destined to be destroyed were searched. As a result, in this study, it is proved that to emphasise the city walls, which are one of the most important components of the urban fabrics, to reveal them, if lost, and the expression of them in harmony with the surrounding environment, will contribute to its environment in social and spatial means and will help urban memory to strenghten. In the first chapter of the thesis, the purpose of the study, its method and scope were presented. It was also explained why this subject has been chosen and the limits of field of study were described. In the second chapter; the function of the city walls and its period of change, historical development and evolvement of protection sensibility in Europe were discussed. Several examples from Europe which are about city walls and protection sensibility were analysed. Ferrara/Italy which has a protected city walls was analysed. For the blasted city walls, Barcelona/Spain and for partly protected city walls, Lisbon-Alfama/Portugal was analysed. In the third chapter of the thesis, the situation of protection sensibility in Turkey was discussed. Within this scope, the condition of Galata and city walls in Turkey was presented. In addition, in the urban texture of Galata, the current condition and the protection sensibility of the city walls were addressed. The change of Galata walls, current protection of it and decisions that were taken according to master plan were analysed. The analysis of Galata walls and its land use of surroundings, structural conditions analysis and survived Galata walls analysis were done. In the fourth chapter, a research has been done about the awareness of Galata walls. The consideration of people who were surveyed about Galata walls, their sense of protection, awareness about the walls has been analysed. In the final chapter, the study has been analysed with the examples from around the world in order to point out the effect of the city walls on urban texture. In addition to this, adviced protection methods are included in the final chapter.