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Fig. 2: Main street
Fig. 3: Other streets
cizes informal housing (Cavender 2006; Turner 1968).
However, some researchers want to look at informal
housing objectively as a fact:
“Such an urbanization starting with migration to towns
from rural agricultural-traditional areas and ending in an
urban, industrial-modern society can be analyzed for its
values of culture-space interactions according to different
scales, leading to a better understanding of squatterization
as a fact, not only as a problem area.” (Turgut 1995).
There is a good body of research that studies informal
housing. However, more studies should be conducted
that specifically evaluate the urban spaces of these areas.
Particular to this study, the interactions of activities
and behaviors with certain urban space typologies are
analyzed in the Istanbul informal settlement of Pinar.
This study examines what open spaces squatter residents
use and how they use these open spaces.
Introduction to Pinar Mahalle
The Pinar neighborhood is a squatter settlement in the
Sariyer Municipality in northern Istanbul. It is 13.5 km
from Taksim and 17 km from Eminönü, two important
Istanbul centers. Pinar citizens typically have come
from the Anatolia region of Turkey (Asia), particularly
Sivas, Kars, Ordu, Amasya, Zonguldak and Kastamonu,
after 1950 (Ergun 2008). There are two (2) mosques in
Pinar. There are no large commercial facilities or office
buildings. There was a park with a football field near the
west entrance of Pinar, Mevhibe İnönü Park. Both were
destroyed to make way for the Istinye Park Project, a
shopping mall, office and apartment complex. A replacement
park has subsequently been built near the east entrance
of the settlement. Most residents work nearby as
physical laborers, civil servants and/or are self employed.
The 1997 census of the neighborhood was 9,321. The
population is 12,039 according to the muhtar (local Pinar
official) record. However, the “true” population is thought
to be nearly 20,000 (Sariyer Municipality 2007).
Materials and methods
See endnote 1 for definition of key terms.
This study analyzes certain defined usage patterns (see
endnote 2) against the variable of open space typology.
It is hoped that correlations between variables can be
observed in order to gain understanding into how Pinar
residents use their open spaces. The study uses an
observation analysis of Pinar Mahalle’s informal housing
open spaces. The study involves operationalizing urban
open spaces as independent variables. This process is
justified by precedent research in space syntax:
“The procedure used by space syntax analysis is one of
representing and quantifying aspects of the built environment
and then using these as the independent variables
in a statistical analysis of observed behaviour patterns.
The question we ask is what aspects of the environment
appear to be correlated with observed flows across a
sample of different locations in the area under study. We
quantify a number of aspects of the built environment,
but those that seem consistently to correlate best with
observed flows are measures of spatial integration in the
axial map of the area.” (Penn, 2001)
Fig. 4: Planned Park
Papers