ITU A|Z • Vol 12 No 3 • November 2015 • 159-173 A diachronic approach on heterochronic urban space İlgi TOPRAK1, Alper ÜNLÜ2 1
[email protected] • Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey 2
[email protected] • Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey Received: May 2015 Final Acceptance: October 2015 Abstract As the fourth principle of heterotopias defned in Foucault’s controversial yet inspiring text named “Of Other Spaces”, heterochronies defne places that accu- mulate time, as well as temporary spatial formations. Tis study interprets urban spaces with historical backgrounds, which can accommodate both the accumula- tion of time and the temporariness, as heterochronic urban spaces. Tis study aims to evaluate the refection of socio-cultural background of historical neighbourhoods on the morphological and semantic change of their heterochronic elements throughout history. Te deconstructive methodology of the study consists of a diachronic research involving three parts: deconstruct- ing, analysing and reconstructing history. By “deconstructing history” through a multi-layered “timeline” developed with important historical thresholds and a “zoning”, morphological or socio-cultural changes and “situations” are defned. “Analysing deconstructed history” involves the syntactic analyses of these “situ- ations” in terms of historically persistent elements and temporary formations, to grasp the morphological and socio-cultural evolution of the heterochronic urban space. “Reconstructing history”, as a synthesis, semantically interprets syntactic fndings signalizing accumulations, discontinuities, shifs or losses of meaning. Te case study is Kuzguncuk neighbourhood, a heterochronic urban space on the Asian side of Istanbul, an old Bosphorus village, which mainly used to consist mostly of a welcoming and peaceful residential area co-inhabited by Jews, Chris- tians and Muslims, later by Black Sea migrants.