Conservations and Rehabilitation in Historical Urban Centres: Halit and Gaziosmanpaşa 22nd Streets, Tokat, Turkey

Abstract

Historical and traditional urban fabrics located at historical urbancentres carry on with their existence as slum areas of cities due toeconomic, physical and functional aging. In Turkey, efforts to conservehistorical and traditional urban fabrics and to solve their problems haveincreased in recent years. These efforts are mostly supported by localgovernments, and are exemplified by such implementations as urbanrenewal projects, and street and façade rehabilitations. However, theseimplementations are carried out to a large extent on a singular basis,lacking in multi-dimensional, holistic approach. Nevertheless,conservation and problems of historical environments have multiplespatial, cultural, social, and economic dimensions. This article addressesconservation and its problems, together with their spatial, socioeconomic,cultural, and legal dimensions, by the example of therehabilitation project undertaken on Halit and Gaziosmanpaşa 22ndstreets located in the historical urban centre of Tokat, and introducessolutions to conservation with respect to strategies developedspecifically for this area. In conclusion a general evaluation of the success of the case study withits background and applicability of this concept to Turkish housing,which is used by middle-class has been discussed.