Urban planners voice concern over Hatay reconstruction plan after earthquakes
The Chamber of Urban Planners (ŞPO) has criticized the reconstruction plans in Hatay following the February 6 earthquakes under the recently amended urban transformation law.
The chamber, affiliated with the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), released a statement titled, "Antakya Cannot Be Rebuilt with an Unplanned, Exclusive, and Project-Centric Approach by Dividing it into Parcels for a Group of 'Star' Architects."
Government implements controversial urban transformation law in quake-hit Hatay
In the written statement, ŞPO highlighted the declaration of the 207-hectare area in Antakya and Defne districts of Hatay, severely affected by the February 6 earthquakes, as a 'reserve construction area' by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change on November 14, 2023.
Lack of transparency
Drawing attention to reports indicating the division of the mentioned area among architectural offices for the redesign process, ŞPO expressed concerns. The statement remarked, "Upon following the announcements and shares related to the issue, it is known that, without a participatory planning process and a comprehensive urban planning study, the area is being worked on predominantly through workshops held, often in İstanbul, with a master plan and three-dimensional visuals of questionable legal validity.
“However, the public has not been transparently informed about whether micro-zoning studies and comprehensive analyses defined in the legislation have been completed, and whether citizens' participation in decision-making processes has been ensured."
ŞPO emphasized the need for a comprehensive approach to the entire earthquake-damaged region, ensuring citizens' participation in decision-making processes within the framework of urban planning principles. It criticized the current approach, stating, "To expect the revitalization of our destroyed settlement areas through a fragmentary and project-centric approach, by parceling and distributing the city center among different architectural firms, is an approach that will inevitably lead to disappointment.
“It is clear that this approach has led the political authority to serious mistakes in the post-earthquake process until today. The destruction in the earthquake zone has been wrongly reduced to the scale of buildings and streets, causing the solution scale to be incorrectly framed.
“Therefore, despite the destruction at the regional and city scale, the scale of the problem was wrongly presented, and the method of the solution was misconstructed, leaving a part of Hatay to a group of architects with the claim of the city's revival."
“Chaotic situation”
Criticizing the ongoing “chaotic situation with no urban planning,” ŞPO urged the initiation of the planning process from the regional and city scales. It stated, "We explicitly state that what Hatay needs is not a conglomerate of 'star' architects but rational and participatory planning studies that address the city with all its sectors, guiding its long-term development together with its immediate surroundings." ŞPO invited all relevant professionals to adopt a similar stance. (VC/VK)