مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The effects of transformation on historical urban centers: An analysis of the Isparta case

Abstract :

The physical transformations in the urban structure and its subsequent reflections on the configuration of the city are processes that take place across a considerable amount of time period. The historical urban centers provide invaluable data for studies regarding the spatial and functional structure changes in the city. Since these spaces have been constituted by centuries of experience, they are the parts of the city where urban accumulation is the greatest. This research seeks to answer two questions: (1) Has the process of transformation in Isparta carried on in tandem with the rest of the country? And (2) Are the data attained from a city’s historical commerce center, one that is on the scale of Isparta, productive to set up a dataset? The research is predicated on historical sources on Isparta, observations, and putative findings. The physical transformation period that takes place in a lengthy time period dating back to the 17th century is analyzed in three distinct phases, related to the transformations of economic, social and administrative systems. In order to determine the contours of each field, the analysis of buildings as the main constitutive element of the fields was necessary, which involved the analysis of their location, the interaction among such buildings as well as their close neighborhood. The latter are significant in assessments that try to capture the types of structures and functions which have become concentrated within the axes of the fields. Nevertheless, the preferences of architectural expression pertaining to the time period have not been investigated. With this study, the spatial transformations and their reflections on the urban configuration in the historical urban center of Isparta, within the specified historical period, will be comprehended. Consequently, data that will enable a comparative analysis among similar studies on other cities that are fundamental in defining the geographical terrain of Isparta will be attained, which is considered as the next step for this research.