Page 141 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

Elçin Sarı - Sevim Pelin Öztürk - İmdat As

Risky and unhealthy structures make up a great portion of Esenler. A large
population density and limited green areas below legal standards (m2 per
person) indicate a low quality of life for the city.

3. The NAR Innovation District Project

Türkiye is an important player in the construction industry worldwide, it
has undertaken projects overseas worth of 14.4 billion USD in 2020 alone.
According to EngineeringNews Record (ENR), Türkiye has the most top
performing contractors after China in the list of “Top 250 International
Contractors” with its 44 companies (Hürriyet, 2020). Despite its active role in
the construction sector and 50-billion-dollar business goal, Türkiye falls behind
in terms of developing resilient cities where innovative and smart solution are
considered. For instance, Istanbul ranks 125th among 175 cities in the list of
smart cities in 2020 according to IESE Cities in Motion Index (CIMI) (Berrone
and Ricart, 2020). According to 2021 IMD Smart City Index, Istanbul ranks 94th
among 118 cities (Bris et al, 2021). To bridge the gap the Turkish Ministry of
Industry and Technology and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and
Climate Change, have collaborated to develop the Esenler District North
Reserve Area as a living laboratory in order to incubate smart city technologies
and infrastructures. With the pilot project of the NAR Innovation District in
the North Reserve Area, the goal of the ministries is to transfer know-how
through this process to the construction industry and thereby help the country
to become an active player in this field. The NAR Innovation District will host
about 10.000 residential units and provide housing for part of the population
living in currently risky areas in Esenler. With its planning approach and design
criteria, the pilot project is estimated to be innovative in many aspects.

a. Analyses and Upper Scale Decisions

The NAR Innovation District is situated in the North (Topkule-Baştabya)
Reserve Area in the city of Esenler, Istanbul. As aforementioned the area was
used to be a military zone. The Istanbul 1/100.000 scale Environmental Plan
suggests that if the military areas are excluded from the Ministry of National
Security program, these areas will primarily be used for social and technical
infrastructure, such as educational, healthcare, or cultural facilities, graveyards,
green areas, etc. Based on this plan, the government decided that the military
zone will be declared an urban redevelopment area, and transformed it into two
sub areas, the North-, and South Reserve Areas. The NAR Innovation District is
situated in the North Reserve Area. The entire Future City Project sits on an area
of 845ha, 212ha of this area is allocated for the NAR Innovation District.

127 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate