Managing the Urban Change: A Morphological Perspective for Planning

Abstract

This study questions the awareness of planners on the intrinsic qualitiesof the built environment in shaping of urban form in Turkey throughouta centennial period after foundation of Turkish Republic in 1923. Itsuggests a morphological framework, to develop such an evaluation,which is based on three basic principles: the historicity of urban forms,the hierarchical nesting of urban form elements, and their reconciliationwithin a complex interaction with each other in a part-to-wholerelationship. It is regarded as an initial attempt to develop a briefdiscussion about a morphological perspective to be utilized in planningpractice. It is asserted that the centennial development of planningpractice in Turkey brought to light that the professionals lost theirconcern on the intrinsic qualities of urban form, on how it is evolvedhistorically, and on how its elements are related to each other. Theyabandoned themselves to the relative ease of application of insensitiveplanning with high confidence on the decency and convenience ofprocedural functioning of planning. It reveals that there is a need for amorphological perspective that would take into account themorphological unity of urban form elements within their interplay inorder to develop a responsive planning approach.