Innovative Social Movements as an Urban Activism: A Turkish Perspective for an Open Public Area

Introduction

Etymologically, the word park is derived from the Old-French word parc. Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary (1993) describes park as a piece of ground, in or near a city or town kept for ornament, recreation, and/or environment preservation. Taksim Park is a city park located between Taksim Square and Elmadağ in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district. It is a public open area that is responsive to people's physical and psychological needs. In history, the area which hosted Artillery Barracks and Taksim Stadium was transferred to a city park with a modern perspective and a construction plan prepared by Henri Prost in 1940. Due to its closeness to Taksim Square which is the most important square of Istanbul, it still maintains its sense of being a city park. Taksim Park is encompassed by Tak-ı Zafer Street in the south, Asker Ocağı Street in the north, Mete Street in the east and Cumhuriyet Street in the west. The Park’s main entrance is the south stairs which are located on the side of Taksim Square. Figure 1. shows satellite image of Taksim Park and its surroundings.

Figure 1.

Taksim Park and Taksim Square in İstanbul

In fact, the process which covers Taksim Park is a period, which started with the idea of “trees should not be cut off” and turned into an action against the policies in a short term because of the disproportionate use of force (Banko and Babaoğlan, 2013: 29). Taksim Park protests became the sequence of global dimensional events which reflected rejection of a society not to turn the park at issue into a shopping center and then, this came to the fore in the world agenda from the agenda in Turkey through the exchange of information and content in social media. Although General Regional Board of Cultural and Natural Heritage prevented the restoration of Taksim Park, this situation was canceled by its Supreme Board and it permitted destruction of Taksim Park and construction of Taksim Barracks. Reconstruction of the Artillery Barracks without the planning permit in the scope of the Pedestrian Project came into effect in this way. Thus, on May 27, 2013, after engineering vehicles’ entering into the park, this situation was quickly heard in a short time especially through social media. Following the rapid spread of the case in question, some people’s or groups’ coming to the park and their protests to stop this work; these protests turned into anti-government demonstrations (Göncü, 2013: 27-30). Hence, the protests which started in Istanbul spread also into many cities in Turkey in a short time. This chaotic situation transformed into Turkey’s problem in a short time and it shaped a social resistance movement (Rota Haber, 02.06.2013 and Sondakika.com, 20.01.2014).

The common faith of all professions related to urban design is that quality physical environment holistically responsive to human needs is very important for human happiness. People have established a structured environment in accordance with meeting their needs. Initially, the man himself is the one who both designed and built, as well. Therefore, human -environment fit is more successful in this structural environment. With the socialization period, architects, city planners and civil engineers as thinking, designing and building element for people have entered into design - usage system. These occupational groups have needed knowledge and cooperation of different disciplines and especially related disciplines in the social sciences so as to answer the questions about how we would design spaces that would meet the specific needs of people. This common condition has prompted urban design related professions to benefit from interdisciplinary sciences examining human-environment interactions.