How do you reimagine a regenerative future for a city like Istanbul?
We know the Future We Want. Why don’t municipalities work with the imagination of their people? Reflections from a wonderful workshop held at Sustianable Brands Istanbul 2019.
How do you re-design a city like Istanbul for a regenerative future? That’s the rather monster task we set ourselves at the recent Sustainable Brands conference in Istanbul. A chance for attendees to experience Bill Sharpe’s Three Horizons model to help guide disruptive innovation into transformative innovation.
If you’ve ever been to the crazy city of Istanbul you will know that designing a regenerative future for a city of 15 million people spread out over two continents and 2063sq miles is verging on the impossible. But I like the impossible because it never is. Not with a little imagination. And a little political will.
One of the joys of being a neo-generalist and without the desire to have a model of my own, is that you can stand on the shoulders of giants and adapt, experiment with and sometimes (if you’re very lucky) refine their work!
With representatives from the food, motoring, and architecture industries in the room plus representatives from UNDP and other NGO organisations, we expected lively discussion! Not wrong.
We started out with a wide variety of interconnected systems to consider. Transport. Education. Food supply. Business. Energy. Healthcare. Work & Employment. Equality. Gender equality. Air quality. Water and waste management. Quality of life.
We wanted to consider all of these key systems within a sustainable framework where nature is not subject to systematically increasing…
EXTRACTED SUBSTANCES…..concentrations of substances from the earth’s crust (such as fossil CO2, heavy metals, minerals)
MANUFACTURED SUBSTANCES..concentrations of substances produced by society (such as antibiotics and endocrine disruptors)
DEGRADED SYSTEMS..degradation by physical means (such as deforestation, soil degradation, draining of groundwater tables)
NO ONE LEFT BEHIND..and in that society there are no structural obstacles to people’s health, influence, competence, impartiality and meaning
Early on in the workshop, the group made the executive decision to focus on one single aspect of re-imagining Istanbul. We chose to look at the city’s relationship to nature, and ways in which we might reintroduce nature into the city. Here are some of the questions we asked ourselves, the areas we highlighted for further exploration, and the essential changes we wanted to make for the future we design. I hope this gives you, the reader, a sense of the scope the Three Horizons model, how the framework enables important conversations to arise as a result of the process.
H1 — What does Business As Usual look like in Istanbul?
How did Istanbul come to be as it is today? What were the historical and cultural influences that shaped it? What are the key characteristics of the city today which we feel should be dying? It’s important when setting out on a journey through the Three Horizons to understand how we got here. This discussion alone can take some time, especially for a city with the rich history of Istanbul.
We looked at the importance of its geography; being at a critical point where East meets West — a convergence of religions, history, attitudes and mindsets, food, cultures and physical land. About the city being an absorbent sponge, a melting pot and meeting place for humanity of all kinds — in which perhaps a vision of nature and our connection to it, got lost. We also considered how difficult it is to deliver good urban planning that takes either people or planet into consideration on a topography that is more hilly than Rome, when done at speed.
We considered the movement of peoples; not just today where almost 4 million Syrian refugees have recently come to Turkey — many of whom have settled in Istanbul — but also in the past as the flows of trade and religions have come in and out of the city and considered what flow and immigration will mean for its future.
We spoke about the explosive growth in the 20th century, driven by easy access to that most toxic and unattractive of mediums — concrete - a material which is a major industry in Turkey. Turkey has 60 integrated concrete plants and 13 grinding plants according to The Global Cement Report.
We also reflected on the loss of traditional architecture which used wooden cladding in the older parts of the city — athough these areas, such as Balat, are gradually seeing some renovation and gentrification as they have an appeal and style lacking in the high rise accommodation of the 20th and 21st centuries. And we briefly thought about the notion of functionality, industry, speed of development riding roughshod over even the thought of considering beauty — or of what that might mean to the experience of living in Istanbul.
Why do we think it’s not ‘fit-for-purpose’? What are the problems of people and planet which have arisen because of the way the city is designed? Of course Istanbul has all the challenges of any other metropolis; air quality, massive traffic jams, enough accommodation but of varying quality but in light of our focus, very little in the way of green spaces. Although parks do exist, and there are vast forests only an hours driven outside the city, most green spaces, gardens and trees have given way to more housing, malls and wider roads to alleviate transport issues.
The combination of concrete, lack of greenery and endless advertising hoardings can make parts of Istanbul feel as if you are choking. Our group listed air pollution, noise pollution (forget sleeping without hearing traffic), mental well-being, biodiversity loss — especially disruption to migrating birds - increased flooding from lack of available land to absorb heavier rainfall, and the increased hazard from falling masonry during earthquakes at the top of the list of challenges.
Earthquakes are a critical part of life in this region. In 1999, the Izmit earthquake killed more than 17,000 people. The view that existing housing and office infrastructure, without green spaces in between or including shelters into which people could go, has raised the risk of injury and death should there be another earthquake, was strongly expressed.
We also explored how and why in Turkish culture we have become disconnected from nature. Although we acknowledged this is an endemic challenge for humanity all over the world, much was attributed to the rapid explosion of the population coinciding with the concrete revolution of the 20th century. We briefly looked at a comparison to London which has retained many green spaces and concluded that the role played by the monarchy in the UK over centuries had an influence on the ability of the city to stay a little green.
It was good to allow a brief diversion to explore the period in Turkish history between 1718–1730 called the “Tulip Era”. Under the reign of Sultan Ahmed III, this period is also expressed as an era of peace and enjoyment. Tulips became and important style of life within the arts, folklore and the daily life. Large tulip gardens around the Golden Horn were frequented by wealthy and educated people. The Tulip Era was brought to an end after the Patrona Halil revolt in 1730, ending with the Sultan being de-throned. We made a note for our future explorations of the impact of politics on greening to recall what we could learn from this comparison.
What is valuable about Istanbul that we would like to keep as we move forwards? The new Metro system which reaches the outskirts of the city where there are more green spaces, came up repeatedly as a positive development. Although as yet people are not using them as much as they could to access the great outdoors, it was felt this was an infrastructure move in the right direction.
We discussed the potential for political and legislative impact on green spaces. No current protection in law exists for any kind of green space, and it was felt that the urban planning system was easy to undermine by corruption and bribery. Most people did not feel hopeful that the space being vacated by Ataturk airport which is schedule to be green space, would remain so but that it would eventually be encroached upon by developers. To have a chance of retaining the existing green spaces, a campaign to persuade government to enact legal protection was thought necessary.
H3 — The Future We Want for Istanbul
What is the desired future we want to bring about? What are its characteristics? It’s always amazing to me how easily we can express what we want. We know what’s good for us, and for the planet. What do people want for Istanbul?
- Access for all to green spaces.
- Increased greening of streets.
- Living walls integrated into new buildings.
- Roof gardens and community spaces to grow food.
- More wild areas, re-wilding of available brownsite areas to encourage biodiversity to return.
- A change in law to permit balconies to offer room for greening, whereas currently urban planning counts them in property area so they are made too small.
- To keep green spaces clean and healthy.
- To change the system which easily legalises illegal pre-fabricated builds on open spaces, encouraging developers to grab space which could be greened, safe in the knowledge they will get retrospective planning permission.
We also acknowledged that it isn’t currently aspirational for young people to participate in outdoor events like hiking or cycling, and that infrastructure doesn’t make this safe (in the case of cycling) or easy (in the case of hiking — not enough waymarked trails). We talked about catalytic events to shift mindset, with the enduring power of sport and the Olympics being key.
As someone who is obsessed with water, I found it surprising that the waterways of Istanbul did not come up. Perhaps we take things we see every day for granted. I think there is huge potential to develop greater connection with nature through access to water sports which seems currently to be seen as elite. Something for the new Mayor to consider perhaps!
What seeds do we see of this future emerging today? How could they be scaled and spread? One of the conference presenters Boris Minialai of Metro impressed everyone with a new sustainability strategy to regenerate local food production and cuisine.
‘Can protecting Turkish cuisine be the purpose of a company?’ introduced a food security strategy by the company to re-ignite interest in local varieties of crop, support their growth and promote the resultant local recipes. Whilst initially a rural strategy, we could all see the potential for this to be translated into neighbourhood food growing initiatives in inner cities.
Imece is a social innovation platform based in Istanbul, that brings together individuals and institutions tackling social challenges. Through its incubation process, imece offers various resources in the form of mentorship, workspace, grants, training, access to the ecosystem and investor relations to teams providing solutions to social challenges. We discussed the shortage of innovation accelerators in both social, environmental and commercial space in Istanbul but see a huge opportunity for businesses to support the development of a social entrepreneur and purpose-led entepreneur accelerator programme — particularly in the current economic downturn.
We also recognised that there is a growing eco-tourism/organic movement that is taking root in Turkey, although inside Istanbul these are tentative roots. Istanbul has two organic outdoor markets, the Ekolojik Halk Pazari in Sisli, which was started in 2008 and City Farm in the Istinye Park shopping center (a noticeably higher-income area). In addition, Istanbul now has dozens of specialized grocers, shops selling all-natural products, and eateries serving only “whole” foods. For chemical-free produce at open markets, fruit and vegetables designated as bahçemden (“from my garden”) are present though not always certified.
All these small green shoots for change could be leveraged to accelerate a greening of the city.
What competing visions of the future are being designed by others? How could we collaborate with them or ensure their visions do not decelerate ours? Given the backdrop of the very recent municipal elections and the polarisation of politics showing up in Turkey as elsewhere in the world, we inevitably had to look at the connections between politics, economics and the construction industry as a key loop for potential change, and the possibility to alter the path of vested interests that may block greening of the city. Without deep expertise in the groups, we posted this as a critical area for future exploration.
We explored other international city change programmes which could mirror Istanbul’s unique circumstances. Singapore and Sao Paolo came up, as being two examples of concrete development which have succeeded in retaining or developing green space. Cape Town was cited for legal protection of green areas and Johannesburg for greening of poor communities.
We considered revitalising local district partnerships (twinning) with other city regions across Europe where significant greening had taken place, and looked at cultural and learning exchange programmes with larger cities to include the construction sector. We also thought that collaborative accelerators between universities, the construction sector and tech/innovation for new material development would be essential, alongside financial incentives for the construction industry that would move building away from unsustainable concrete towards other materials and introduce concepts like biophilic design and integration of nature.
Recognising that vehicular transport in Istanbul is deeply integrated with the potential for greening of the city — we looked at the potential to extend the tram network, create more tree-lined pedestrian walkways and even introduce mini mobile forests. We concluded that a government backed study would be essential to establish transport and development areas for greening in collaboration with the new Mayor’s office (at time of writing I’m not sure if the Mayor is changing).
We looked at Africa’s Great Green Wall project to try to imagine if something like this might be possible in Istanbul, and created a list of EU projects from which the city could learn.
Although cycling was considered currently dangerous and unhealthy in a city like Istanbul, and challenging because of the topography, it was nevertheless thought that rent-a-bike schemes with route that connect green spaces could be trialled in certain parts of the city, if accompanied by safety education. Electric car sharing schemes, electric charging points and a policy to financial reward environmentally friendly transport such as low emission zones were also touched upon.
Our Summary Conclusions for the Greening of Istanbul
- Deep collaboration between government, local government, construction and waste management (of deconstructed cement) would be essential to manage a future in which cement did not feature as strongly, and where a transition to environmentally friendly building became the norm — a project that might take 20 years
- Collaboration and partnership to be designed into the future of the city, with international city relationships as well as local-2-local district relationships to support each other, explored. This should reflect the historical nature of the culture of Istanbul — cultures and populations shifting, changing, merging over time. A form of oloidal joining and interaction.
- Investment into technology, research, business accelerators focused on nature-inspired design, including biophilic design could generate an eco-innovation economy from the fresh green shoots currently emerging in the grassroots movements
- A re-imagined urban development and design system, where nature is protected by right of law and must be incorporated into new built areas, and where there is no possibility for development to over-ride nature would be needed
- Nature would need to be integrated into the education curriculum, and government would need to invest in developing infrastructure to support sport in nature (with carefully managed impact assessments given the population of young people) to encourage young people to reconnect to nature in an aspirational environment
- Legal protection for existing and newly introduced areas of nature would be essential
- An ambitious transport strategy to bring renewable energy into the public transport system, to increase tramlines, metro access with a focus on freeing up space for nature regeneration
This took us 3 hours. We didn’t get to H2, but we enjoyed rich, varied discussions in which many issues and conflicts arose, were discussed and decided upon. Without rancour. Just deep interest.
A final reflection from our wonderful workshop. Young people in Turkey are incredibly polite. They contribute to a welcoming and hospitable environment. But what if they were empowered to activate their visions for the future and speak their minds more? Watch this space…..
With thanks to Semra Sevinc, Cansu Duran and Ceren Demirbag of Surdurulebilirlik AkademisiIstan Turkey for inviting me to SB Istanbul and being such wonderful hosts.
