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Verticalities in comparison: Debates on high-rise construction in Izmir and Istanbul

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  • Anlam Filiz

Abstract

Large-scale high-rise architecture projects have been central to the rise of the construction industry in Turkey in recent years. This vertical escalation, however, has not been received without dissidence. Scholars, activists, journalists and officials with different viewpoints have participated in media debates regarding the reasons and consequences of this transformation. In these discussions, stakeholders have raised various environmental, cultural and ethical concerns that the vertical organisation of cities generate. Focussing on juxtapositions of Izmir and Istanbul in debates on urban verticality in the city of Izmir, Turkey’s third most populated city, the paper examines how such comparisons with Istanbul, where the recent urban neoliberal transformation is experienced most intensely, have been mobilised to oppose vertical expansion. The paper argues that as a result of the recent centralisation of the Turkish economy around construction, the hyper-visibility of skyscrapers and the concentration of the urban transformation generated by the Turkish construction industry in Istanbul, skyscrapers have become materialised symbols of Istanbul’s integration into global capitalism, neoliberal urbanisation, and the difference between Istanbul and other urban centres in Turkey. This example establishes urban verticality as a discursive axis at which urban centres outside of the Global North establish their difference from each other.

Suggested Citation

  • Anlam Filiz, 2024. "Verticalities in comparison: Debates on high-rise construction in Izmir and Istanbul," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(4), pages 743-757, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:4:p:743-757
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231168054
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Matthew Hayes & Hila Zaban, 2020. "Transnational gentrification: The crossroads of transnational mobility and urban research," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(15), pages 3009-3024, November.
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    4. Megan Nethercote, 2019. "Melbourne’s vertical expansion and the political economies of high-rise residential development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(16), pages 3394-3414, December.
    5. Caglar Keyder, 2005. "Globalization and Social Exclusion in Istanbul," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 124-134, March.
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    1. Casper Laing Ebbensgaard & Michał Murawski & Saffron Woodcraft & Katherine Zubovich, 2024. "Introduction: Verticality, radicalism, resistance," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(4), pages 619-635, March.

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