Development trends of single family housing estates in Izmir metropolitan fringe area

Abstract

Sprawling urban land uses at the fringe areas is a very common development fact, today, in many cities around the world. 1980s is the breaking point when Turkish cities entered into a period when changes and sprawling began to be seen in fringe areas. High-rise satellite towns, shopping centers, office parks, international hotels,large-scale infrastructure projects are the indicators of this change in the fringe of metropolitan city scene. In this period, new housing areas also began to form around the fringe of cities. One of these new residential forms are 'single family housing estate' that indicates to the new forms of urban growth and diffusion processes in metropolitan cities such as Istanbul and Ankara. These housing areas got distant from cities in orderto be nearer to the amenity and represented a tendency to choose location closer to major transportation routes; mostly they are 'gated' and 'packaged' environments. This study is important in examining the Izmir sample of this housing development type where only Istanbul and Ankara samples were discussed before. The aim of the study is to understand the transformation seen in Izmir metropolitan fringe, by studying the development aspects of single family housing estates increasing in number after 1990. The spatial development features and planning decisions orienting the development of single family housing estates that develop at the western axis of the Izmir metropolitan city, within the boundaries of Urla Municipality are studied under the topic 'process'. The reasons and managing factors affecting people leaving the previous housing areas and selecting new areas are discussed in 'behavior' part. Besides, their satisfaction level about houses, housing environments, and accessibility to urban services are questioned.Discussing the constraints created by single family housing estates in metropolitan fringe and potentials brought by them are making easier to perceive this new trend. As a result of the study, constraints of single family housing estates were determined as lack of public space and urban services, automobile dependency, unnecessary consumption and fragmentation of agricultural land and open space, and speculative building. It was also found that there are variety of problems in local government applications and planning regulations.