Movement Activity and Strategic Design Study for Istanbul's ...

578 A. S. Kubat, Ö. Ertekin, E. Eyüboglu, Ö. Özer.
The critical economic mass of leisure and retailing must be brought together in a
way as to generate parallel social gains, thus Galata as a part of Istanbul’s city center
and is not just retail and touristy market, but also a place of social and civic importance.
Galata requires a carefully planned framework of public spaces and pedestrian connections,
together forming the public realm of the historical center of Istanbul. If this essential
infrastructure is not provided new developments it will risk turning their backs on each
other and acting as stand-alone facilities. To handle the strategy properly, the synergy
between individual projects is created, and people are allowed to flow easily between
them. In other words, to handle public realm properly, rich pedestrian connections are
created in Galata, more inter-accessibility is allowed and thus the risk of social stagnation
is removed.
In conclusion, we are convinced from our analyses that Galata has much significant
potential to be sensitively developed as a place that is people-focused, connected, inclusive
and integrated, and that can radically enhance the social, economic and environmental
quality of the wider Istanbul metropolitan area. This can be achieved through a coordinated
implementation of an agreed planning policy, based on an integrated spatial master
plan, the basis of which outlined briefly in this paper.
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