Our “Kentleşme ve Istanbul” (“Urbanization and Istanbul”) Event Took Place!

Our event titled “Kentleşme ve Istanbul”, organized by Bahçeşehir University Center of Migration and Urban Studies (BAUMUS), took place on the 21st of December at the Istanbul Planning Agency (IPA).

The event moderated by the founding director of BAUMUS Prof. Dr. Ulaş Sunata began with, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Özer’s speech titled “City and Urbanization” speech. Evaluating urbanization through an analytical analysis, Prof. Dr. Özer talked about the developments on the axis of the city from 1923 to today's history and concluded his speech by giving examples from the urbanization experiences of Turkish citizens.

After Prof. Dr. Özer’s speech, Prof. Dr. Ulaş Sunata emphasized that migration and the pandemic have changed our lives in all aspects and that the phenomenon of migration should be evaluated from a positive perspective. While adding that the city offers us many opportunities and access to public services, she underlined that the conditions of service, like our lives, have changed with the pandemic. Many services came to our homes, education continued remotely, and our working patterns have been updated alongside changing employment conditions.

In his speech titled “City and Art”, Associated Prof Bülent Sezgin, stated said that the basic structure which makes up the city is culture. He emphasized that a city like Istanbul has a multicultural society and that this cultural diversity should be reflected in art. He mentioned that there are great changes in the field of art with the introduction of the pandemic into our lives, and argued that the need for both art and social solidarity arose with the pandemic. Finally, he emphasized the need to increase the cultural and artistic opportunities and maket hem accessible to everyone.

Our final speaker, the Secretary General of IPA Oktay Kargül, talked about city planning through the years of 1900-2009 in his speech titled “City and Planning”. He stated that the city planning of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has changed with the mayorship of Ekrem İmamoğlu. He said that this change was made with all the components of the city in mind, by completing a comprehensive needs analysis. Finally, he concluded his speech by talking about the Municipality’s Vision 2050 strategy.

We would like to thank the speakers and all the participants of the event, which ended with an interactive Q&A session!