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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Empowering the community through

participation and action in historic
neighbourhood conservation planning
Anlı Ataöv a, Z. Ezgi Halilo

glu Kahraman b,*, Sevin Osmay a

a
City and Regional Planning, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
b
City and Regional Planning, Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey

Received 18 May 2021; received in revised form 8 December 2021; accepted 10 December 2021

KEYWORDS Abstract This paper presents an attempt to initiate community empowerment within the
Participation; participatory neighbourhood upgrading context of the S‚engül Hammam Neighbourhood
_
(Istiklal). We adopted the Participatory Action Research methodology, which aims to generate
Empowerment;
Neighbourhood knowledge meaningful for the community towards upgrading and revitalizing the neighbour-
revitalization; hood. Respectively, a series of workshops, focus groups, and community activities were imple-
Conversation mented in parallel processes with different neighbourhood groups. In order to change the
planning; situation in the neighbourhood, the inquiry began by mobilizing neighbourhood stakeholders
Participatory action and planning the future with primary school children. Later, this gained the active support
research of parents, women, the municipality, local leaders, and civil associations, and led them to take
collective action over garbage collection, cleaning up the neighbourhood and building a
playground-park. The mayor at the time of the research showed interest in Istiklal_ but did
not or could not give any financial or political support to upgrade the physical setting as a
whole. The lack of support from the municipality in that regard and the neighbourhood being
left to its own destiny caused a gradual dilapidation and loss of historic and cultural values.
ª 2021 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf
of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ekahraman@cankaya.edu.tr (Z.E.H. Kahraman).
Peer review under responsibility of Southeast University.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2021.12.001
2095-2635/ª 2021 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article as: A. Ataöv, Z.E.H. Kahraman and S. Osmay, Empowering the community through participation and action in
historic neighbourhood conservation planning, Frontiers of Architectural Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2021.12.001
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A. Ataöv, Z.E.H. Kahraman and S. Osmay
1. Introduction
Neighbourhoods have been the social, political and spatial
foci of planning practice around the world for more than a
century. Many scholars see focusing on the neighbourhood
scale as an attempt to respond to the dehumanization of
urban concentration with a social setting that is manage-
able in size (Ahlbrandt and Brophy, 1975; Downs, 1981;
James, 1980; Laska and Spain, 1980; Silver, 1985). That
being said, as a means to make city life better, the
approach has changed over time. A review of literature on
neighbourhood planning shows four approaches signifi-
cantly affecting the way that the planning practice has
been undertaken. They are building neighbourhoods for the
immigrant poor, neighbourhood renewal as representative
of social uniformity, conservation of existing neighbour-
hoods as places of vitality, and neighbourhood planning
through participation. Despite the chronological emergence
of these different types of neighbourhood planning, they
pretty much coexist today, dominating global neighbour-
hood planning practice. Moreover, although this classifica-
tion has been made mainly upon the experience in
American cities, it can apply to other countries such as
Turkey, yet in association with different contextual re-
alities, causes and intentions.
At the beginning of the 20th century, neighbourhood
planning emerged as a means to build neighbourhoods for
immigrant poor as well as to reconstruct entire cities
(Keating and Krumholz, 2000). Often initiated by settle-
ment workers, the demand was to abandon the highly
congested city centres and to disperse people along the
periphery. There were also attempts not only to improve
civic centres of already existing neighbourhoods but also to
beautify the entire city. For example, this was the case
with the 1907 St Louis Plan. In the 1920s, Clarence Perry
(1924) suggested a neighbourhood plan in response to
America’s rapid suburbanization and the overwhelming di-
versity of modern city life. It was an attempt to adapt to
the automobile age through creating apartment blocks that
separated vehicular and pedestrian circulation, providing
open space, and developing community life around the
neighbourhood school. Within this unit, a homogenous so-
cial environment could be created. The implementation of
the principles of that neighbourhood design in inner-city
neighbourhoods resulted in massive slum clearance, and
consequently, the destruction of existing communities’ so-
cial ties and relationships. This later led to a significant
criticism of Perry’s design from outside the planning
profession.
The critiques of Jane Jacobs (1961), Herbert Gans (1962),
and Paul Davidoff (1965) helped to end the urban renewal
clearance, and thereby, triggered a shift in the way neigh-
bourhoods were seen. After having observed inner-city
neighbourhood communities, Jacobs favoured high-density,
diverse and multi-use neighbourhoods to enhance city vi-
tality. Similarly, Gans rejected the assumption that physical
environment could determine social functioning when he
discovered vibrant social networks in decaying
1
Hammam e Aspects and Methods of Multidisciplinary Analysis for the Mediterranean Region, (FP 6 2003 INCO MPC 2, contact number: 51
77 04) 2006e2008.
2
neighbourhoods. Davidoff offered the advocacy planning
approach which aimed at assisting neighbourhoods that are
threatened by a city plan. As a result of such research
studies and practices, the focus of neighbourhood planning
has shifted from the plan to the construction of a process
that respects the interests of the neighbourhood. Further-
more, they have prepared the ground for “citizen partici-
pation” to become an essential principle of local politics.
Today, neighbourhood groups engage in planning to
provide inputs, to formulate proposals, and, in some cases,
to take action for the realization of shared decisions. The
participatory approach in planning contributes to the
democratization of societies in general (e.g. Ataöv, 2007;
He, 2002; Owen, 2002; Stokes, 2002), the empowerment of
the weak (e.g. Aptekar, 1994; Ataöv and Haider, 2006;
Awad, 2002; Bartlett et al., 1999; Lusk, 1992), and the in-
crease in community learning (e.g., Brown and Duguid,
1991; Chisholm, 1998; Cooke and Schienstock, 1996; Elden
and Levin, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Many cities employ plan-
ning staff whose task is to establish connections with the
community. There are also community development cor-
porations (Orlebeke, 1997; Keating and Krumholz, 2000)
and community civil organizations which act as liaison in-
stitutions between the community and local authorities.
This paper presents an attempt to revitalize a historic
_
but decaying inner-city neighbourhood, Istiklal, in Ankara,
Turkey, through a process of social change. This was an
attempt to keep the neighbourhood from being destroyed
as a place and community, as happened in many urban
neighbourhoods in developed countries during the first half
of the 20th century. The inquiry process emerged from the
multinational research project, the HAMMAM,1 that aimed
at revealing the historic assets of the S‚engül Hammam,
_
located in Istiklal, and understanding the community’s ca-
pacity and role in the conservation of the Hammam. As a
result, instead of the employees of the Hammam
commuting every day from different parts of the city, a
prior need to empower the neighbourhood inhabitants
emerged. Thus, we initiated an inquiry process which
intended to respond to the question of whether a shared
interest and action to sustain an inner-city historic neigh-
bourhood can be constructed through the empowerment of
neighbourhood residents.
This process was undertaken under pressure from a po-
litical agenda of clearance set forth by the Greater Mu-
nicipality of Ankara, but with the political support of the
local Municipality of Altında
g that recognized neighbour-
hood interests. The neighbourhood, was simultaneously
experiencing the five processes of decay. These were the
declining socio-economic status of the neighbourhood’s
residents, ethnic change, physical decay, pessimism about
the future of the neighbourhood on the part of residents,
and economic disinvestment (Cohen, 1979).
In response to this socio-spatial and political dynamism
in the neighbourhood, the inquiry took a participatory
approach and used Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a
means to catalyse change by allowing neighbourhood in-
terest groups to take charge of their future. On the basis of
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the assumption that a historic neighbourhood can be pre-
served most effectively in a sustainable way when com-
munity interests are taken into consideration, this study
aimed at generating future decisions to empower the
neighbourhood community through taking shared action for
a better future.
By applying PAR, this study integrated four sets of con-
cepts and practices into the inquiry process: (i) everyone
taking the role of researcher, (ii) planning for trust building,
(iii) inclusive future planning, and (iv) improving self-
organizing capacity through action. Different from other
conventional methods, these practices allowed the inquiry
to become a part of a change process that eventually aimed
at contributing to community empowerment.
This paper presents how these practices emerged and
the preparatory conditions and settings within which they
came about. Respectively, it first introduces the initiating
forces of this attempt to empower the neighbourhood
groups through developing their own plans deliberatively.
Second, the paper describes the transformation in the
neighbourhood within a historical perspective, its current
social setting and the legal framework of the Turkish Con-
servation Act. This helps frame the methodological
approach and set PAR as a research strategy as presented in
the third section. The fourth discusses the findings of the
four practices that characterize this inquiry. Finally, the
paper elaborates on the sustainability of the hammam and
its neighbourhood, and presents some follow-up outcomes
of the inquiry and future research activities.
2. Initiating forces for the empowerment
attempts: the S‚engül Hammam
This study of an attempt to empower the neighbourhood was
initiated out of the multinational and multidisciplinary HAM-
MAM project. The aim of that project was to develop sus-
tainable strategies and new design concepts for adapting old
hammam features to contemporary life, as well as for
assessing the possibilities of how such a living cultural site
could contribute to the quality of life of the whole urban
neighbourhood. The HAMMAM project had a strong emphasis
on sustainability and used the case-study approach to inves-
tigate the local situation (socio-cultural, economic, ecological
and urban) of five specific hammams in five different coun-
tries: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Turkey.
In Turkey, the selected case-study was the S‚engül
Hammam and its neighbourhood, _Istiklal. The project con-
sisted of two phases and lasted three years. The initial
phase contributed to defining major strategies regarding
the conservation issues of the S‚engül Hammam. In this
phase, the inquiry used methods such as interviews, focus
group interviews, transect walks and periodical visits to the
neighbourhood, intensive workshops to allow comparative
follow-up of the findings from all participating countries,
analysis of historical documents to explore the hammams in
the city of Ankara, and scenario making.
The first part of the study positioned the historical
hammam as a democratic place for maintaining multiple
public spaces for women and men through combining pat-
terns of visitation and participation, and bathing together
(Aks‚it, 2011).
3
The second phase was constructed on the basis of the
_
above with a focus on the preservation of Istiklal through
community empowerment. This paper presents the findings
of the second phase and discusses this conception and use
of the hammam to understand how this initiated a process
of revitalization in the surrounding neighbourhood through
the democratization of the community at large. An attempt
to understand the hammam in this respect set the view of
the hammam in three dimensions, namely historical-
physical, gendered, and contextual.
First, the initial part of the study viewed the S‚engül
Hammam as a special place. This was because the hammam
was historically constructed as a part of mosque complexes,
which typically included a school, library and some saintly
tomb, around which a residential and commercial area
typically developed. This greatly helped nourish social in-
teractions in the complex as Islamic parts of the Mediter-
ranean culture. Facilities such as fountains and public baths
offered in these complexes also determined the population
growth of the neighbourhood as well as its integration into
the city (Faroqhi, 2000; Isin and Üstünda
g, 2008, 527).
Although the S‚engül Hammam was serving both the city and
its neighbourhood in this respect, it was not quite playing
the traditional role of being a harbour for the community
around it at the time when the inquiry was conducted.
Second, within this context, the hammam remained as a
more secular place than the mosques in the neighbourhood.
While the place allocated for women in the mosque is iso-
lated from the inner court dedicated for prayer and
worship, and thereby remains disconnected from other
worshippers and places within the same structure, both
men and women created new patterns of use and evolved
both socially and spatially in the hammam. Where women
are concerned, they contributed to the transformation of
the passivity of visiting the hammam as an example of how
gender creates multiple spaces (Mills, 2007). Women
contributed not only to the bathing of other women who
live in the city, but also fostered urban vivacity (Aks‚it,
2011).
Third, both the neighbourhood and the hammam were a
multi-cultural and multi-religious place until the 1980s
when the Jews left the district, a few decades after the
Christians. At the time of the inquiry, on the other hand,
the major question concerning the hammam and its
neighbourhood community was linked to the disintegration
of the neighbourhood, socially and physically. The discon-
nection of the neighbourhood from the hammam was
pointed out as the main problem of the district. For
research purposes, it would be easy to ignore the setting of
the S‚engül Hammam because of the deteriorated condition
of the neighbourhood as, if left undisturbed, it would
disappear in few years. Thus, the uniqueness and impor-
tance of the neighbourhood as an artifact of the Turkish
_
history and culture made Istiklal a strong candidate for a
scenario to enhance its sustainability. In consequence, the
researchers produced realizable, self-generating and sus-
tainable future scenarios for the S‚engül Hammam and its
neighbourhood.
The academic work related to scenario-making in this
phase of the inquiry and the consideration of contextual
needs and dynamics led to the generation of three sce-
narios. These included no intervention; restoration of the
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A. Ataöv, Z.E.H. Kahraman and S. Osmay
hammam and other public structures of cultural and his-
toric values in the neighbourhood; and revitalization of the
neighbourhood and the conservation of the S‚engül Ham-
mam. To ensure sustainable conservation, the third sce-
nario, and more specifically the focus on the neighbourhood
was pursued for implementation. The contextual analysis in
support of the third scenario, in turn, revealed the need to
continue the inquiry as a change process.
3. Contextual setting of the neighbourhood
Understanding the social dimension of the HAMMAM Project
and ameliorating the living conditions of the neighbourhood
residents, both socially and physically, required a deci-
phering of thorough insight into its contextual setting. This
became essential in the formulation of the inquiry strategy
and adaptation of relevant methods and techniques. This
section presents the historical context, the social aspects
including the particularities, needs, and dynamics of the
neighbourhood, and the approach to conservation planning
at present.
_ growth and a consequent increase in population mainly
The Istiklal Neighbourhood, surrounding the S‚engül
Hammam, is located in the Ulus district, at the centre of
old Ankara, to the south-west of the citadel. The neigh-
bourhood was a significant place for living especially be-
tween the 19th century and the 1970s (Fig. 1). In this
period, it served as a residential district next to the main
central business district of Ankara and contained a socially
and ethnically mixed community with a vivid economic life.
The neighbourhood was known as the Jewish district in the
Ottoman period. The Jews were a small fraction (413e842
persons between 1890 and 1902) of the population in
_ of population and lack of affordable housing in the city, the
Ankara (Cuinet, 1890). In Istiklal, predominantly Muslims
and Jews lived side by side as evidenced by the presence of
religious buildings such as mosques, hammams, masjids
(Muslim chapels) and a synagogue (Bahar, 2003). Besides
these two ethnic groups, Greeks, Armenians, Russians, and
Bosnians also lived there.
A big fire in 1907 destroyed the north side of the
neighbourhood and is considered to be a precipitating
Fig. 1 Historical context of the neighbourhood (Photo-
graphed by the authors).
4
factor for the departure of the Jewish community from
Ankara (Bayat, 2007). Furthermore, the declining economic
situation affected the merchants in the city, many of whom
belonged to the non-Muslim community (Ortaylı, 1985;
Bahar, 2003). Such changes in socio-political and economic
domains, at both local and national levels, and reflexively,
in urban space, led to transformation of the
neighbourhood.
When Ankara was declared the capital city of the Turkish
Republic at the beginning of the 20th century, intense
construction work started. The policy was to build a new
city near the old one. Although that policy aimed to
conserve the old city, quite a number of houses in the old
city were demolished due to the uncontrolled building
permissions, neglect and the property changing hands
(S‚ahin et al., 1988).
From the beginning of the 1950s until the 1980s, the
national economic growth policy, which enforced industri-
alization and agricultural modernization (S‚enyapılı, 2007),
led to the production of an industrial city model in Turkey.
Ankara, like other Turkish metropolitan cities, experienced
composed of migrants from rural settlements. This, in turn,
transformed both the peripheries of cities into squatter
housing neighbourhoods and existing low buildings within
city boundaries into multi-story structures (Ataöv and
Osmay, 2007). In this sense, the centres were never aban-
doned as occurred in western cities at the beginning of the
20th century, yet they experienced degradation particu-
larly in historical neighbourhoods.
In line with this trend, the middle-class inhabitants of
_
Istiklal were replaced by rural immigrants. Under pressure
dwellings in the area were subdivided and used as rentals
for the new inhabitants, while the remaining former owners
moved to the modern southern neighbourhoods of Ankara.
In time, the former rural immigrants moved once more to
_
better neighbourhoods in the city leaving Istiklal to “new-
comers”, thereby leaving the neighbourhood as a transi-
tional area annexed to the old city centre.
After the 1980s, the Turkish economy started opening to
international markets. This allowed industrial enterprises
to transform into organized production units, and thereby,
to move outside city boundaries, leaving small-scale pro-
duction work places in historical urban centres (Ataöv and
Osmay, 2007). This attracted the unqualified and low-
income working population to create their own housing in
surrounding squatter housing neighbourhoods and/or to live
in historical neighbourhoods. This group was uneducated,
had insufficient income, and could not create a comfort-
able work setting and status for itself (Altaban and
S‚enyapılı, 2002). In response to this newly-emerged socio-
economic phenomenon, authorities found a solution, on the
one hand, by legitimizing the self-produced squatter
housing and giving them the permission to own and trans-
form squatter housing units into apartment buildings. This
led to urban land development as residential neighbour-
hoods outside city boundaries. On the other hand, the au-
thorities attempted to legally preserve culturally,
historically, and environmentally significant sites and areas.
This affected historical neighbourhoods in that they
became legally designated and preserved as historic sites.
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Within this context and time period, a large area in old
Ankara, which comprised the citadel, the historic centre of
the city and some residential neighbourhoods including
_
Istiklal were registered as historic and cultural conservation
sites. While allowing a housing opportunity near to working
places in the centre, this halted all construction and
renewal work in the area and prohibited intervention in any
building without approved restoration. This, in turn, how-
ever, contributed to the deterioration of housing, followed
by social decline in the neighbourhood. Many families
moved out of their dwellings, many unoccupied houses and
rooms were invaded by homeless or burglars (Ilcan and
UTTA, 2012).
In the 2000s, Turkey’s economic policies that favoured
privatization of public institutions, and so income polari-
zation, unemployment and poverty, and lack of accessi-
bility to social services have increased (IST, 2005). In
parallel with this trend, crime rates also showed an in-
crease in inner-city dilapidated neighbourhoods. Ankara,
like other metropolitan cities, has grown through large
pieces of land being transformed from vacant, agricultural
or already existing use to housing, commercial, industrial,
and/or tourism. Moreover, urban renewal projects also
contributed to the demolition and transformation of exist-
ing squatter housing areas of the city. The neighbourhood
development in this period reminds us of the lived conse-
quences of Perry’s neighbourhood design approach in
western countries. On the other hand, private and public
sectors envisioned historic sites as potential sources for
economic investment. Some have been gentrified as in
neighbourhoods within the boundaries of Ankara citadel;
_
others including Istiklal have been left to their natural
process of disappearance.
At present, _Istiklal, as a traditional historic residential
neighbourhood, has registered status and contains regis-
tered civic architecture as well as residential structures.
This status was gained in 1980 (Avcı Hosanlı and Bilgin
Altınöz, 2016). In 1983, the height of buildings surround-
ing the neighbourhood was increased to four storeys along
Anafartalar and Denizciler avenues, and limited to six in
Talatpas‚a Boulevard (S‚ahin et al., 1988) (Fig. 2). This
functioned as a physical boundary that helped maintain the
traditional historic coherence within the neighbourhood
and enhanced the conservation of buildings, the street
_
pattern and lot shapes. The existing buildings of Istiklal can
be classified according to their use as religious, adminis-
trative, educational, commercial and residential.
Next to the 16th century S‚engül Hammam, the historic
religious buildings consist of the Synagogue and three mos-
ques - Eskicio
glu, Leblecio
glu and the Örtmeli Masjid (Figs. 2
and 3). The Synagogue is a one-floor stone structure with a
double leaf door and high arched windows. The entrance to
the building, in which men use the basement and women use
the balcony, is through a courtyard (Fig. 3). The Eskicio
glu
Mosque is located on Eskicio
glu Street. It was constructed on
a stone base with mudbrick masonry and designed on a
rectangular plan. The Leblecio
glu Mosque is located at the
intersection of Denizciler Avenue and Kargı Street. It was
designed as a square and built with mudbrick masonry with
timber lintels on stone masonry basement. The Örtmeli
Masjid, located on Kalyon Street, stands as a plain structure
which has a roughly 1-m-high wall with a stone base and
5
wooden beams. The masjid has a rectangular plan. It is
entered through a wooden door and has a fountain on the
north side of the entrance. While the two mosques represent
similar characteristics of the 18th century mosques, the
masjid represent unique examples of the Ankara masjids
from the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th
centuries (S‚ahin et al., 1988).
The neighbourhood is composed of about forty regis-
tered residential units, mainly clustered along Eskicio
glu,
Kargı and Esen streets (Fig. 2). While the building height
varies from one to four floors, the majority of have two.
Some buildings include cihannüma2 that provides an overall
view to the building surrounding. The relationship between
human scale building structures, courtyards and gardens
shows a coherent pattern in the neighbourhood. However,
no significantly clustered repetitive building facades and
plans are observed. Fig. 4 shows some examples of building
plans opening either directly to the street (from tas‚lık3) or
through a courtyard. The characteristics of the facades, on
the other hand, contain similarities throughout the neigh-
bourhood (Fig. 5). While some are symmetrical, others
present an asymmetrical order. The symmetrical ones also
have a symmetrical carrier system either with projections
on both sides of the facade or one in the middle, or all along
the facade. The asymmetrical facades often have pro-
jections either at the corners or in zigzag shape. The
interior space of most buildings is reorganized and the use
is changed in accordance to the needs of their residences.
Research revealed that in some buildings, sofa is trans-
formed to a storage room, the storage room to a kitchen, or
the yüklük4 to a toilette. Moreover, some new rooms or
even buildings are added to existing structures in the front
yard or courtyard to provide additional interior space for
separate families sharing the same building. Despite all
these changes, some traditional interior architectural ele-
ments such as yüklük, wooden ceilings and fountains could
be protected and are still in use in some buildings. Fig. 6
displays restitution drawings, current floor plans and pho-
tographs from selected buildings to present current interior
layouts and elements.
The street pattern does not present a geometrical order.
Streets are often connected in a T-like shape with a varying
width between 2 and 5 m (S‚ahin et al., 1988). The heights of
walls and projections from the facades also create particu-
larities in each street. Open spaces with irregular shapes are
created at street intersections, conveying the meaning of a
social gathering place in the neighbourhood. However,
degradation and decline in the area continue today;
furthermore, vandalism and illegal appropriation of common
spaces makes the neighbourhood an insecure environment.
3.1. The legal context in terms of conservation
planning
In conservation planning, the Turkish system encounters
three major dilemmas (Bademli, 2006; Tekeli, 2003). First,
2
A single room located at the top of the roof.
3
Stony ground of the building entrance.
4
Traditional cupboard some of which include gusülhane (tradi-
tional bathing cubicle).
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A. Ataöv, Z.E.H. Kahraman and S. Osmay

Fig. 2 Traditional and new buildings and structures in the neighbourhood (Data updated in February 2020 after Avcı Hosanlı and
Bilgin Altınöz, 2016).

the concept of “conservation” is conceived differently by
different interest groups. Second, a number of public in-
stitutions exist with similar responsibilities for conserva-
tion, yet the conservation plans do not reflect the interests
of the groups affected. Third, the implementation is driven
by the conditions of the free market economy.
The conservation of cultural and historical heritage is
conceived differently by those involved, from top-level
decision-makers to the grassroots. Although not only
academically but also politically, Turkey has committed to
a number of international declarations and principles, such
as Amsterdam Declaration and Valetta Principles, and
acceded the Faro Convention, a conceptual disagreement
among involved groups often takes places. No shared
meaning can be constructed as to what should be conserved
and how that should be done. For instance, the conserva-
tion of certain cultural and historical artifacts such as
public monuments is often valued more highly than the
conservation of civil architecture. The common strategy of
conservation by decision-makers can result in the trans-
formation of a historical site into a museum-like setting.
Furthermore, certain historical time periods are favoured
more than the others. While some find only the Roman re-
mains worth preserving, others deem the 19th century civil
architecture dispensable and decide that the historic
housing can be torn down.

6
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Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 3 S‚engül Hammam and its schematic layout (Photographed by the authors, Layout adapted from Günel and Kılcı, 2016).

Fig. 4 Examples of plan typology of traditional buildings (Adapted from S‚ahin et al., 1988).

Secondly, there are a number of institutions which are
responsible for conservation but cannot work in agreement
with each other. For instance, the Ministry of Culture and
Tourism and the Provincial/District Conservation Boards
supervise and control the plans; the Religious Foundations
perform the restoration and management of single public
historic buildings; the metropolitan and district municipal-
ities make the plans. Moreover, there are a number of civil
associations which run conservation-related activities.
There are also conservation experts from academia and
that section of the general public which is affected by the
implementation of the plans. Despite this multi-actor
pattern of conservation, planning is generally done with a
top-down approach by a single institution. In addition,
other dominant political power groups often intervene in
the making and implementation of decisions.
New legislation such as the Greater Municipality Law
(No. 5216/2004), the Law of Renovating, Conserving and
Actively Using Dilapidated Historical and Cultural Immov-
able Assets (No. 5366/2005), and the Preservation Law of
Cultural and Natural Assets (No. 5226/2004) emphasize the
participation of all actors in conservation planning but does
not mandate full participation. As a result, avenues of
collaboration between different actors are not always
sought in practice. Running a participatory system to
enhance shared decisions and action in conservation be-
comes highly strenuous. In fact, Law No. 5366/2005, often
addressed as the Renewal Law, delegates local authorities

7
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A. Ataöv, Z.E.H. Kahraman and S. Osmay
Fig. 5 Examples of facade and projection typology of traditional buildings (Adapted from S‚ahin et al., 1988 and Avcı Hosanlı and
Bilgin Altınöz, 2016).
to intervene in cultural heritage sites through urban
regeneration and transformation projects, and thereby, to
become the main actor in the planning and implementing
processes that fundamentally change the historic cultural
character of the place (Özçakır et al., 2018).
Thirdly, conservation requirements are conceived as
limitations since the means for the implementation of
conservation decisions and supporting mechanisms are not
yet developed. There is generally no public support for
enhancing conservation. Consequently, the free-market
economy becomes the only active and regulating player in
this process. This is also often supported by broader spatial
policy favouring political and economic benefits rather than
the values of cultural heritage and social sustainability
(Özçakır et al., 2018). This usually results in the exclusion
of public interest, more specifically, the local community.
That, in turn, creates a conservation practice which focuses
on the economic return from the historic site without any
consideration of its social significance.
3.2. The social context of the time when the study
was conducted
At present, the neighbourhood is inhabited by low-income
families, invaders, individuals or organized groups running
illegal businesses in the neighbourhood, and street children
living in vacant houses. According to the field survey (METU,
2005), one fifth of the total 273 households (22%) is owner
occupied. The percentage of tenants is significant, reaching
almost three fourths of the total households (66%). The rest
(12%) are either invaders or people who do not pay rent on a
regular basis. Half of the residing population (49%) is out of
employment. This includes elderly and children in school.
8
Three fourths of the remaining population (38%) is
employed. Women make up only one fifth (6%) of the
employed population.
Other research (METU, 2006e2008; Aks‚it, 2010, 2011)
_
shows that the inhabitants of large residences in Istiklal
represent an extended family structure often including
three generations and several families joining their eco-
nomic resources sharing the same house and (see current
floor plans in Fig. 6). The women of these families are
responsible for taking care of the children and the house-
hold work. In their spare time, they produce needlework
for the family. Single male tenants live in additional sepa-
rate rooms created by converting the original inner courts
of the houses. Some tenants and invaders pose a threat to
residents by committing crimes such as assault, alcohol and
drug use in public areas, vandalizing building facades,
public structures and street furniture.
The neighbourhood offers salient public services
including schools, mosques, the synagogue, and the ham-
mam. The neighbourhood is also located at the border of
two large university hospitals. Over 80 children from the
neighbourhood attend the Sakalar Primary School. Others
are usually the children of parents working in the sur-
rounding public institutions or businesses. The Anafartalar
Technical and Vocational High School draws its students
from a much wider area. In both schools, teachers and
headmasters also come from other parts of the city. Among
the neighbourhood mosques, Eskicio
glu functions as the
most active religious centre due to its Imam (the religious
leader), who takes an interest in community development.
The synagogue stopped its weekly services a couple of de-
cades ago, and instead it serves a small community in
Ankara on holidays (Bahar, 2003).
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Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx
Fig. 6 Restitution drawings, current floor plans and photographs of selected traditional buildings (Drawings and plans adapted
from Avcı Hosanlı and Bilgin Altınöz, 2016 and updated in November 2021, Photographed by the authors).
The S‚engül Hammam remains disconnected from the
neighbourhood even though some of its employees formerly
_
lived in Istiklal, and maintained friendly relations with the
residents. Some of the reasons for this were the absence of
a hammam culture in the daily life of the residents and the
high entrance fee (which had increased from 9TL/V1.2 to
20TL/V 2.7) at the time when the research was conducted.
In contrast, the hammam expanded its network to the
whole city and increasingly drew its clientele from other
neighbourhoods. This contributed to the upgrading of the
hammam business and allowed more women to work within
the establishment.
This social context generated a number of key persons,
who have internalized the implementation project. These
key persons include male and female members of families
who have been living in the neighbourhood for over 30
years, some children, the school headmasters, and the
Imam. They provided insight into the problems, and
thereby, contributed to the formulation and the imple-
mentation of the methods and techniques used in this
project. They also built the connections to other members
of the neighbourhood.
4. Research strategy and methodology
The PAR study used the results of a survey conducted in
2005 (METU, 2005) and field research including in-depth
9
interviews, home visits, and site observation conducted in
2007 and 2008 as part of the HAMMAM Project (METU,
2006e2008; Aks‚it, 2010, 2011) to understand the socio-
spatial context of the neighbourhood, and consequently,
to choose PAR as a research strategy in the second phase,
which started in 2009 (Ataöv, 2017). Respectively, the
research purpose addressed in the context of the overall
HAMMAM Project and associated to the second phase of the
inquiry was “to construct common interest about neigh-
bourhood sustainability by empowering stakeholders
through participation and shared action.” In response to
this defined research statement, the project aimed to
generate future knowledge useful and meaningful to the
community so that they can change their situation through
participating in shared action.
PAR is founded on a strong commitment to empower-
ment, and has an overall strategy to empower the com-
munity, particularly women and children. The notion of
empowerment has been elaborated and explained by
numerous scholars through different concepts and practices
such as social action, knowledge generation, democratiza-
tion, dialogue, experience, and learning.
Whyte et al. (1989) argues that empowerment can be
achieved through social action which refers to a set of ac-
tivities through which a community collectively changes its
current state to a better one. By doing so, a community
awakens its potentials and activates its ability to take
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A. Ataöv, Z.E.H. Kahraman and S. Osmay
charge of its own destiny (Greenwood and Levin, 1998).
One essential element of enhancing social action is the
emphasis on the development of a social process that al-
lows the democratization of the community through the
generation of new knowledge (Dewey, 1991; Greenwood
and Levin, 1998; Ataöv, 2008). Furthermore, this positions
participants as co-learners in interactions with each other,
and thus facilitates learning (Freire, 1970; Greenwood and
Levin, 1998; Schön, 1987; Whyte et al., 1989). The other
important element to social action is that by their effective
participation in the process of decision-making, individuals
develop the sense of commitment to proposed decisions
(Whyte et al., 1989; Whyte et al., 1989).
Freire’s work on critical pedagogy in his book Pedagogy of
the Oppressed, published in 1970, illuminates an approach
based on dialogue, praxis and experience, which also rep-
resents the key elements of any PAR (Ataöv and Haider,
2006). Freire believes in the significance of people’s expe-
rience in the educational process as a tool of empowerment.
Giving people this type of experiential learning opportunities
evokes a process of developing critical consciousness that
can change reality. Similarly, Antonio Gramsci (1971) also
argues that all individuals participating in a social process
are co-learners, who can connect to the outside world
through their lived experiences.
Emery and Trist (1973) and later Argyris (1985) empha-
size practical knowledge for dealing with human affairs and
suggest that people can take control by means of commu-
nication and participation within open systems. In their
book Action Science, Argyris et al. (1985) argue that
continuous cycles of action and reflection can reveal
practical knowledge. It is only the community that will
maintain such knowledge as insights and is, therefore,
capable of releasing it to make their lives better.
The state of the neighbourhood, characterized by social
disintegration, physical decay, disappointment, loss of trust
in authorities, and inability or impossibility of appropriating
the social and physical environment necessitated the
formulation of an overall research strategy for empowering
the community, particularly women and children. This, in
turn, required the researchers to design and implement an
inquiry which aimed at a social change process. The inquiry,
which took one and-a-half years, strongly supported the
notion that the community was the active agent in con-
structing the social reality of the neighbourhood, and thus
had the right to shape the built environment for their use
and development. This position made their participation in
_ This section presents the participants, who acted as re-
the research, design and planning of Istiklal an essential
element of the research initiative.
By using PAR, the study attempted to initiate a process
of bottom-up decision making whereby participants could
transform the vision they wanted. Every action with the
stakeholders was taken together and simultaneously. The
argument was that action builds up power. Moreover,
empowerment takes place in the most effective and effi-
cient way only if the participants take charge of their real-
life situation and can actually commit to a collective action
to change it (Ataöv, 2008). To do that, the community had
to generate practical knowledge that was meaningful to
5 _
The district municipality to which Istiklal belongs.
10
them and upon which they could act collectively. Lessons
learned from the HAMMAM project led the neighbourhood
project to begin by transforming the perceived lack of
sense of community in the neighbourhood and help foster a
sense of empowerment. This initiative did not expect ideal
outcomes to emerge, yet it was essential to engage the
community in dialogue with decision-makers and to create
the space for them for a better future for their place. Given
strong political pressure from decision-makers who tried to
mould neighbourhood residents to their way of thinking and
acting, the most urgent position was to develop the means
to empower them. This was the point of departure.
The PAR inquiry used participatory techniques to allow
democratic dialogue and to foster commitment to de-
cisions. The main techniques utilized were one-on-one and
group meetings with the school teachers, the local key
persons and decision-makers; workshops with the male and
female adult members of the neighbourhood as well as with
school children; in-depth interviews with some key persons
such as the Head of the Planning Department of the
Altında
g Municipality,5 the Imam, and the headmasters of
_
both schools in Istiklal; advocacy meetings with the repre-
sentatives of cooperating institutions such as the Religious
Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and
involved civil organizations; campaigns and follow-up
events on site; individual/group work for the design and
production of campaign flyers, T-shirts and poster making;
and consultation with experts on suggested projects of
implementation, particularly the playground and park
design as well as budgeting.
Although the PAR inquiry began with a process design as
a guiding scheme, this could change in response to proce-
dural and contextual needs and dynamics. This resulted in
an emergent process design, which ran within two parallel
processes (Fig. 7). The first aimed at following-up the ac-
tivities initiated in the HAMMAM project, re-connecting
with the neighbourhood stakeholders, and advocating the
interests of disadvantaged groups, particularly children,
women and households to decision-makers. In the second
stream, we aimed at mobilizing and empowering the
involved stakeholders through participatory planning for
collective action. These two processes are outlined in
further detail in the following sections.
5. Involved actors as researchers
searchers, and their roles in the inquiry. This provides
insight into the actors involved throughout the planning and
implementation processes. Four groups of participants
engaged as researchers in the inquiry: the neighbourhood
inhabitants, decision-makers, community representatives,
and the project coordinating group.
The first includes neighbourhood inhabitants and/or
_
people working in Istiklal. The living composition of this
group consists of households and disadvantaged groups,
particularly children and women. The group living and/or
working in the neighbourhood covers government em-
ployees (the Imam, teachers, and the present and past
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Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx
Fig. 7 Emergent research process.
mukhtars), local business owners, and the Hammam
personnel. This group acted as community leaders and
contact persons in the project as well as participants in the
planning and implementation workshops.
The second involves decision-makers. This group in-
cludes top-level managers and professionals from the local
authorities (Altında
g Municipality, Religious Foundation,
the Ministry of Culture and Tourism). This group facilitated
communication between top-level management and the
coordinating group as well as implementation of decisions
taken at the local level.
The third component includes representatives from civil
associations whose fields of activity coincide with neigh-
bourhood interests. They are the Professional Chamber of
Architecture, Co-existence Association (BIVAK),6 Conserva-
tion Experts Association (KorDer),7 and the Middle East
Technical University (METU) Graduates Association. These
associations provided voluntary support for the imple-
mentation of social and urban design project activities,
both technical and financial.
6
BIVAK is a non-governmental organization that aims at estab-
lishing dialogue between different cultures and raising the envi-
ronmental awareness through the use of cultural and sports
activities.
7
The purpose and aim of KorDer is the interpretation, presen-
tation and conservation of cultural heritage so as to work for the
sustainability of the cultural and natural heritage of Turkey in
cooperation with the public as well as national and international
institutions.
11
An essential fourth component of the planning process was
the main researchers who took the role of relational orga-
nizers and motivational agents in the community actors’ self-
realization of their capacities. This was essential because we
wanted the community to develop their use of “power with”
other actors who often used their power over the community
(Sirianni, 2007; Warren, 2001; Wood, 2002). Thus, the re-
searchers helped build relationships among a wide array of
actors in neighbourhood associations, city departments,
central government, local school representatives, community
leaders and residents. The neighbourhood and the commu-
nity, under the pressure of being left alone to deteriorate, to
eventually be demolished, and to transform into something
outside its identity, had little motivation to do anything for
their own future. Thus, the researchers also played the role of
a psychological booster for any single or tiny action that the
community was willing to take collectively. They catalysed
and advocated this throughout the process. Furthermore,
they moderated the process of knowledge generation as pro-
active participants. They did not construct the content of
knowledge, but contributed to the content when needed, and
guided the process methodologically.
6. Planning for trust building: follow-up,
re-connecting, and advocacy
The main researchers initiated the action process by
following-up activities which had already taken place in the
previous phase of the HAMMAM project. This helped re-
establish dialogue with neighbourhood stakeholders.
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A. Ataöv, Z.E.H. Kahraman and S. Osmay
In this process, decision-makers envisioned the neigh-
bourhood as socially hopeless yet with physically embedded
potentials. For instance, the Mayor of the Altında
g Munici-
pality perceived the future appearance of the neighbour-
hood as an attractive place for private developers. He
thought that such historic sites should be conserved as
museum-like settings. Community-based interventions such
as the one at which this project aimed were considered
“too insignificant” for the financial and labour support of
the municipality and were “not included in the 2008
agenda.” The mukhtar at that time thought that this
neighbourhood would be demolished soon in accordance
with the Ulus Master Plan decisions of the Greater Metro-
politan Municipality of Ankara.
This problem was overcome by maintaining persistent
communication with key persons in the local authority and
central government offices. For instance, researchers
regularly informed the Head of the Planning Department in
the Altında
g Municipality about the outcomes and engaged
him in the data collection and realization of activities. This
significantly changed the attitude at the municipal level
towards positive collaboration. By gathering key represen-
tatives of decision-makers and the civil society at a meeting
at METU, inter-institutional dialogue was enhanced and
their focus was drawn to joint action.
In contrast, it was not possible to initiate any dialogue
with the Greater Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara due to
conflicting relations between the mayor of that time and
the university to which the researchers were affiliated. The
construction of that relationship and the reasons behind
such a non-collaborative attitude are beyond the scope of
this paper, but it is enough here to state that the main
researchers chose to influence a politically more authorized
agent in urban affairs by establishing reflexive dialogue and
cooperative relationship with the local municipality.
On the other hand, the headmasters of the neighbour-
hood schools were always very cooperative in “doing
something good” for the neighbourhood. Moreover, they
were always cooperative in allowing access to the children.
That being said, however, despite all effort, the inquiry
goal did not make sense to some teachers. Only a few could
relate to the main goal, others were more prone to take
part in the process. Partly, it was due to the fact that the
teachers were not staying for long in their positions. In
addition, the headmaster of the primary school of many
years was looking forward to retirement because all pre-
vious efforts for the neighbourhood had failed.
Business owners contacted in the initial stages of the
HAMMAM project also remained detached from the issue as
well as the process. On the other hand, civil associations
were supportive and cooperative although one of them, for
instance, had concerns about how to respond to the inquiry
demands. KorDer offered its professional expertise yet was
deprived of the financial means to act.
7. Inclusive future planning and action
unfolded: mobilization and empowerment of
stakeholders
Complex problems in the neighbourhood, uncertainty about
the future and pressure necessitated handling each
12
stakeholder group individually at the beginning of the
process. This was to help them realize their power to take
charge of their future. Thus, the inquiry ran in parallel
processes of planning and action with community groups
including children, householders, and women. There was
also an attempt to mobilize civil associations to draw their
interest towards the neighbourhood for their technical and
financial support. Each participatory process conducted
with these groups created a setting for the participants in
which they could systematize their perceived problems,
formulate their proposals to overcome those problems,
choose the most realizable project, and detail the action
plan for its realization.
In the first phase, the main researchers organized three
workshops and two campaigns with children. Furthermore,
through a series of meetings, telephone and e-mail corre-
spondence, they collaborated with the municipality, the
headmaster of the primary school, and BIVAK for their
support in the organization of the children’s prioritized
project. 30 children, 20 parents, municipality officials, the
headmaster, and the BIVAK members participated in this
phase (Fig. 8).
The children have always been willing, cooperative,
constructive, friendly and active throughout the process.
They were fully capable of perceiving the concrete poten-
tials and problems of the neighbourhood. For instance, they
could clearly interpret the neighbourhood’s historic, cul-
tural, educational, and environmental significance as
opposed to its pollution, vandalism, and lack of play
opportunities.
They not only took an active part in all planning activ-
ities but also showed strong commitment to shared action
including communication with their families, organization
of friends, and participation in implementation. For
_
instance, they became cleaning leaders of Istiklal by taking
charge of the neighbourhood cleaning campaign and sus-
tained it persistently (Fig. 9). Moreover, one 10 years-old-
girl showed her commitment to the following playground
project by stating: “Let’s not give out the playground
construction work to others; we can do it together; we can
collect money in school; I have 2 TL (V 0.27) to contribute.”
Fig. 8 Cleaning campaign (Photographed by the authors).
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Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx
Fig. 9 Campaign posters (designed by BIVAK) including drawings and slogans produced by children.
Second, the main researchers built the dialogical bridge
with eight neighbourhood inhabitants in a preliminary
meeting. This was followed by two workshops with about 30
participants in total: the first focusing on an assessment of
the neighbourhood, and the second on a formulation of
project ideas. Additionally, numerous follow-up home
visits, meetings, and phone calls were made to sustain the
communication with them. Residents who had taken part in
the first phase of the HAMMAM project were more active in
the second phase. This can be interpreted as an effect of
their initial active engagement in their empowerment as
active citizens and their commitment to the following stage
of the inquiry (Ataöv, 2017).
Other inhabitants were passive and uncommunicative in
the preliminary meeting. In the following workshops, they
became eager to list problems and to express complaints.
Women, particularly in the initial phase, were more
constructive than men. For instance, some male partici-
pants continuously dominated the dialogue by repeated
failures in their attempts. They said that “The municipality
should take responsibility; it does not perform its duties
properly.”
In general, the participants perceived that all the
problems and solutions were driven by external forces. In-
formation based on rumours dominated their view of the
future prospects of the neighbourhood. This further pre-
vented them from taking action. Moreover, destruction and
_
vandalism in Istiklal frightened them away from developing
any plans for themselves, left them with deep uncertainty
and kept them inactive. Although inhabitants welcomed
this process, and they were hospitable and cooperative in
13
dialogue, yet they still showed a need for external guidance
in taking initiative for joint action.
Some of the issues which they brought up in workshops
also overlapped with those raised by the children. Thus,
their attention was drawn to the commonalities, focusing
on neighbourhood cleaning and playground planning. The
other most highly prioritized issue involved neighbourhood
safety.
Third, a sub-inquiry process was initiated with women.
This attempt continued with the organization of a series of
meetings and in-depth interviews with women residing in
_
Istiklal and once more the Hammam personnel. The field
study showed that women residing in the neighbourhood
were generally detached from those working in the S‚engül
Hammam. This separation also affected our reach to all
women in the neighbourhood. Workshops with inhabitants,
visits, and interviews suggested a potential for women to
participate in income generating activities such as selling
needlework and homemade food in the Hammam. However,
when the number of local women in the focus group
expanded, it became clear that this was not shared as an
exciting prospect by all participants. Moreover, the Ham-
mam personnel implicitly expressed disagreement for such
an idea, which required a new need assessment and plan-
ning process with the women. This could be due the lack of
integration of the hammam with the neighbourhood and its
operation for urban middle-class clients.
Lastly, the main researchers conducted one-on-one and
group meetings with the civil associations which could have
_
an interest in directing their activities to Istiklal. Among
them, BIVAK contributed to the project by designing and
 + MODEL
A. Ataöv, Z.E.H. Kahraman and S. Osmay
producing the posters and T-shirts for the campaign. Re-
searchers also produced the design and budgeting of the
playground project to be located in the school property in
cooperation with children and BIVAK. Members of the as-
sociation voluntarily took an active part in the campaign.
However, although the Altında
g Municipality showed
significant interest in its realization, the playground project
could not be implemented for a couple of reasons. Towards
the end of this phase, new elections were about to take
place and this was putting pressure on the municipality in
terms of time, budgeting, and immediate commitment.
Moreover, after the elections, the main contact person, the
head planner, left the municipality to work at the Greater
Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara. The inquiry also had to
end soon due to emerging circumstances in researchers’
academic engagement.
Other than this, the METU Graduate Association showed
an intention to conduct the restoration of a historic resi-
dential building in the vicinity of the neighbourhood; and
Conservation Association (KorDer) considered opening a
_
centre in Istiklal operating as an advisory body for resto-
ration and training. They also planned to initiate an
assessment of the historic housing in cooperation with the
district municipality.
8. Highlights from the outcomes
Today, there are dozens of renovated historic residences in
the surrounding neighbourhoods of _Istiklal that have gained
a “museum-like” appearance upon the completion of
renovation activities. The houses are vacant. The ground
floor of a few is occupied by small retail outlets such as for
eating and drinking. Some others accommodate non-
governmental organizations, businesses and offices. The
majority of the population does not live there anymore.
People who work in the surrounding work places come
there for lunch and after work hours, and leave in the
evening. One of the surrounding neighbourhoods which
represents this is Hammamönü, located not more than 1 km
_
away from Istiklal. Despite many national and international
awards, the renovation project in Hamamönü received
many criticisms both by current residents and by the
academia for transforming a lively neighbourhood into a
deserted place because of focusing only on the beautifi-
cation of building facades but neglecting the society who in
fact lived in those buildings. The neighbourhood lost its
tenants, thereby, lost its old retail clients, partial renova-
tion took place on building facades, only the parts that
could be seen from the street level, but not the interiors
(Sudan, 2012). In this study, in contrast to this trend, the
intention was to make the population a part of change, and
while doing so, to increase the livelihood in that place, to
create commitment of the community to it, and thus, to
maintain the sustainability of the community. Within its
limitations, it led to a few shared actions and created a
process of collective thinking, reflecting and planning that
generated some ideas about what could be done in the
future.
Respectively, this inquiry process conducted with a
participatory action approach intended to lead to some
positive changes in the neighbourhood community situated
14
in the most politically discussed district of Ankara. Despite
its potential for tourism and the pressure created on the
land value by it, the inquiry catalysed the neighbourhood
community to act together to conserve their place. This
initiative created space for the community to decide for its
own future and communicate that with the authorities
through a series of workshops, focus groups, and
community-based events. This awakened a willingness to
take charge especially among children and women. Resi-
dents came together in a process of identifying their
strengths, weaknesses and their future steps. This,
thereby, strengthened participants’ capacity to commit to
shared action and the awareness that all have a shared
conception about what the neighbourhood is and what it
should be. Moreover, they took steps to upgrade their
neighbourhood. The collective decision-making process also
revealed potential areas of shared action to be taken in the
future, and thus, presented further possibilities for com-
munity empowerment (Ataöv, 2017). This inquiry evolved in
such a way that cleaning the streets and designing public
spaces such as a neighbourhood park enhanced the sense of
community through the engagement of children and
women. This is often stated in literature as a social, po-
litical and spatial focus of the community (Ahlbrandt and
Brophy, 1975; Downs, 1981; James, 1980; Laska and
Spain, 1980; Silver 1985), a common ground for residents
to carry out social and functional activities (Haider and
Haenen, 2004), and a milieux that contributes to interac-
tion, engagement and shared experiences in the neigh-
bourhood (Francis et al., 2012; Talen, 2000).
9. Concluding remarks
Despite the positive changes in the neighbourhood dis-
_
cussed above, Istiklal remained disconnected from the
Hammam at the time of the research. It is still like that
today. The neighbourhood is occupied mainly by short and
long-term tenants and has a need to expand its notion of a
community (METU, 2013). The Hammam is economically
integrated with the centre of the city and the surrounding
neighbourhoods. Despite the intervention led by this in-
_
quiry, the current situation in Istiklal puts the existing
problem of the neighbourhood into a long-term change
process. No current dialogue between residents and au-
thorities could be tracked due to a number of political
changes in local municipalities that took place short after
the inquiry ended. Moreover, since the site was declared to
be subject to renewal, the pressure on the neighbourhood
future and the pessimism felt within the community
remained. For the same reason, no authorities could take
any action in the neighbourhood. It was left in a way to its
destiny, broken up through its most vulnerable part for car
parking use. Thus, dilapidated housing in the neighbour-
hood became gradually destroyed and transformed into
parking lots managed by street mafia, as after-inquiry in-
terviews imply. On the other side, the Mayor of Altında
g
_
Municipality showed a significant interest in Istiklal and has
changed his approach to conserving this historic neigh-
bourhood over the years. He has constructively acknowl-
edged the feedback from other renovation projects led by
the same mayor within the same district.
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Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx
Regarding the scientific side of this effort, this paper
claims that a participatory process allowing the opportunity
for co-generating future knowledge can enhance commu-
nity learning and commitment. This, in turn, can contribute
to the sustainability of the existing community. Addition-
ally, small inquiry processes can also take place based on
the needs and dynamics of the context. These, for
instance, may include increasing youth capacity, integra-
tion of graduates of the Technical and Occupational School
in the spatial upgrading of the neighbourhood, restoring a
single historic house as a model for conservation, and
upgrading the public and open space system.
Community-based approach in cultural heritage conser-
vation, as applied in this case, has been adopted more
frequently in the last decade. Numerous case studies con-
ducted in Europe, Africa, Australia and Northern America
have pointed out the integration of communities in con-
servation within the framework of sustainable develop-
ment. Özçakır (2018), Özçakır et al. (2021), and Licciardi
and Amirstahmasebi (2012) present a comprehensive re-
view of relevant studies, projects and reports. Respec-
tively, in addition to empowerment, consensus building,
and participation, four other issues appear significant when
heritage conservation system is taken beyond monument-
based. These issues refer to economic development, lo-
cality and culture, environment, and partnerships (e.g., Dili
et al., 2010; Jodidio, 2011; SGS Economics and Planning,
2015; UNESCO, 2016; Zeng, Dong, 2014; The World Bank,
2009). The first highlights the adoption of historic build-
ings to contribute to job creation, business growth and
economic prosperity and revitalization in historic sites, and
thus, to improve the life standards of communities. While
doing so, it also promotes maintaining a balance between
development and heritage conservation. The second em-
bodies localness and makes culture a driver for conserva-
tion. It points out cultural identity in the maximization of
community benefits. The third integrates conservation with
environmental vulnerabilities, more specifically, the im-
pacts of climate change. Lastly, establishing appropriate
partnerships, often between public and private sectors,
and local management frameworks to integrate urban
conservation and sustainable development is seen salient
particularly in heritage-led regeneration processes.
Experiences gained from this inquiry as well as lessons
learned from previous studies show that such a process
should involve, primarily, the residents’ gaining capacity
both socially and economically. Secondly, it calls for a
change in the approach of local authorities and central
government to the site towards a more holistic one. Within
this framework, neighbourhood safety (e.g. Clarke, 1997;
Hill, Blears, 2004; Schneider, Ted Kitchen, 2002; Wekerle,
Whitzman, 1995), the restoration of houses (Chalana,
2016; McClurg, 2011), revitalization of open spaces and
landscape to foster walkability and public space use in
general (McClurg, 2011), regulation of architectural details
such as fenestration, materials, height, setbacks, and
orientation (Dastgerdi, De Luca, 2018; Yeston, 2014),
empowerment of youth, education and training of in-
habitants (Chalana, 2016; Embaby, 2019) can be listed as
urgent issues to be dealt with towards a sustainable
15
community. Once the community is empowered and
decision-makers adopt a more collaborative approach,
future inquiry should be designed to aim at the integration
of the Hammam and its disintegrated neighbourhood
community.
Having suggested that, this inquiry also show that it is
significantly difficult to make a change in the physical
environment without any political and financial support. The
never-ending shift of power in decision-making for cultural
heritage sites certainly contributes to that. For example, it is
now the central government which announces an urban
regeneration project for Istiklal, focusing only on the phys-
ical transformation (Cenikli, 2021). However, this paper de-
clares that both community empowerment and an enabling
decision-making mechanism for participation require a
long-term process for change, and this is, in fact, what was
_
aimed to happen in Istiklal. The voluntary dedication of all
parties had a limit when the neighbourhood was concerned.
This study certainly does not claim that change takes place
as a result of one heroic act - it does not. Small acts build up
the movement. Any tiny action towards initiating change in
the society and any advocates of this view along the way
must contribute to a step that decision-makers may prefer to
take differently today.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the EU funded project, the HAMMAM,
Aspects and Multidisciplinary Methods of Analysis for the
Mediterranean Region, which initiated the grounds of this
inquiry, the Co-Existence Association (BIVAK) which sup-
ported the neighbourhood activities with residents, and
Semih Kelleci, an instructor, and Destina Demirtas‚, a grad-
uate student, at Çankaya University in the Department of
City and Regional Planning for their contribution of archi-
tectural drawings of traditional buildings. We are also
grateful for the help of Mehmet Arabacı, the former mukhtar
of the neighbourhood, and Prof. Dr. Mehmet Tunçer, a
lecturer in the field of historical area conservation at Çan-
kaya University in the Department of City and Regional
Planning, in analysing the life in traditional buildings. We,
finally, would like to acknowledge Dr. Özgün Özçakır for his
insightful comments of the earlier version of the paper.
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