Turkey's Biggest Urban Renewal Project: Gaziosmanpaşa

Gaziosmanpaşa's "Earthquake-Focused Urban Transformation Master Plan" study includes a "Strategic Action Plan" covering an area of approximately 11.700.000 m² for the whole of the county and the urban design project and urban design application guide prepared in 1/1000 scale which is prepared for the area of 4.200.000 m² declared by the Council of Ministers as a risky area.
With the proposed urban design project for risky areas, a construction area of 7.500.000 m² has been designed for the projected population envisaged in the positive plan.
In order to meet the needs of this projection population with the reports prepared at every stage of the design; a comprehensive study was planned to raise the quality of life, to create a safe environment against all disasters, to increase green and open spaces, to increase modes of transportation and accessibility, to render equipment areas accessible, and to organize a sustainable infrastructure.
All this process and organization was carried out under project leadership of KEYM and with a working group of approximately 3000 people, consisting of Buro Happold as infrastructure consultant, MIC as transportation consultant and Atelier Dreiseitl as landscape consultant, where the overall concept and master plan of FOSTER + PARTNERS is under project leadership of KEYM.
KEYM has started to work with Sarıgöl Urban Transformation Bureau within the borders of Gaziosmanpaşa district and worked with 5 field offices and 30 stages in total in Mevlana neighborhood, Pazariçi neighborhood, Karayolları neighborhood, Fevzi Çakmak district respectively.
The rights of ownership agreements started at a rapid pace in Sarıgöl district. The Minister of Environment and Urbanism conducted a field survey in Sarigol Quarter, which is within the scope of the conversion areas of Gaziosmanpaşa, with Mayor of Gaziosmanpaşa Dr. Erhan Erol. With the participation of the President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the biggest demolition ceremony of Turkey within the scope of Urban Transformation Project was held at Sarıgöl Field Office.
Within the scope of the ‘Law on the Transformation of Areas Under Disaster Risk’, numbered 6306, the work was launched -within the context of preparation of the "Transformation Master Plan" concerning the determination of methods for the districts within the borders of Gaziosmanpaşa and İstanbul- on October 8th with the Foster + Partners group, one of the biggest companies in the world serving KEYM's organizer at every scale of architecture and design. The workshops were held with the high level participation of Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality and Ministry of Environment and Urbanism.
Within the scope of Gaziosmanpaşa District Urban Transformation Master Plan Workshop, the meeting regarding the presentation of Phase 4 was held in Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality VIP lounge on May 14, 2014. Mayor Hasan Tahsin Usta, deputy chairperson, technical team, consultants, Ministry of Environment and Urban Affairs officials and representatives of KEYM participated in the meeting. Representatives of Foster + Partners, Buro Happold, Atelier Dreiseitl and MIC companies also attended the meeting to convey the masterplan studies.
"Steve Trstenjak" representing the Foster + Partners group, one of the biggest companies in the world that provides services at every scale of architecture and design, presented the future they dreamed of for Gaziosmanpaşa, as a head of the Master Plan team. The consulting teams from the leading companies of the world in each field have also made the sub-openings of the master plan and described what needs to be done to create the table imagined. Deterger Grau from Atelier Dreiseitl has elaborated the project on urban landscape, Davide Boazzi from MIC company suggested a traffic model as a transportation adviser, and James Dickinson, representing “Buro Happold”, provided details of the infrastructure system recommended as an infrastructure consultant.
Main topics of the meeting:

1. Brief introduction of Master Plan team,
2. Preliminary entry on Master Plan Approach - short transfer of vision, objectives and strategies,
3. Process evaluation of master plan study - timeline of the progress and next steps,
4. The presentation of the last phase reached by the most critical problems and potentials set in the district.
   At the end of the presentation, Mayor Hasan Tahsin emphasized that the master plan is important to the process and that everyone who would contribute to the process in order to turn the proposals into the fastest practice would like them to take place with high participation and to be a pioneer and a model for all the districts in the transformation of Gaziosmanpaşa.
   On November 13, 2014, together with Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality, all the work done in Foster + Partners' London office was examined on site and final presentations were taken. Gaziosmanpaşa Mayor Hasan Tahsin Usta, GOPAŞ General Manager and Parliament Member Suat Alkan, Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality Technical Vice President Ahmet Bülbül and President Consultants Özdemir Sönmez and Erol Aydoğdu attended the meeting. On behalf of KEYM, company partners Cem Yılmaz and İsmail Çakal and KEYM Director Onur Soytürk attended the meeting.
   After all the deliveries and meetings were made, with the participation of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization Prof. Dr. Mustafa Öztürk and the accompanying delegation, presentation of Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality Urban Transformation Master Plan was made to Mayor of Gaziosmanpaşa and his team.
   Undersecretary of Ministry of Environment and Urbanism Prof. Dr. Mustafa Öztürk, Deputy Undersecretary Mücahit Demirtaş, General Directorate of Infrastructure and Urban Transformation Services, General Manager Vedat Gürgen and Assistant General Manager Hikmet Haspolatlı, General Directorate of Spatial Planning, Assistant Manager Hidayet Uysal, Environment and Urban Ministry, Istanbul Provincial Director Yaşar Güvenç, Provincial Director Assistant Hande Yalçıntaş and Director of Construction and Planning Branch Günay Çoban attended the meeting and the Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality Urban Transformation Master Plan prepared by Foster and Partners together with KEYM was presented.
   In addition to the Urban Transformation Master Plan report, it was decided to examine in detail the work done after the meeting, in which ideas on Gaziosmanpaşa's 2023 vision were expressed via posters delivered and a 1/2.500 scale model.