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Industrial Heritage for
Sustainable Cities
Proposals for the Transformation of
Istanbul’s Unkapanı Flour Mill
Istanbul 2023
Published by Netherlands Institute in Turkey
İstiklal Caddesi, No: 181, Merkez Han Beyoğlu/İstanbul
Certificate No: 71485
www.nit-istanbul.org
March 2023
ISBN-13: 978-605-72590-0-4
e-ISBN: 978-605-72590-1-1
Copyright © 2023 Individual authors
All rights belong to the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT). A part or all of the content of this publication
can not be used, reprofuced, or distributed in any form or in any way, without the permission of the members
of the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT).
The 2021 UHL program was supported by the Consulate-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Istanbul
and LDE Centre for Global Heritage and Development.
Editors:
Fokke Gerritsen
Özgün Özçakır
Aysel Arslan
Sena Kayasü
Sedef Yurdagül
Contributors:
Aybüke Safi
Aysel Arslan
Batoul Mesdaghi
Cem Balcan
Elif Leblebici
Fokke Gerritsen
Gülhayat Kılcı
Harry Reddick
Mehmet Alper
Meriç Altıntaş Kaptan
Merve Torlak
Miraç Ayça Türkfiliz
Mustafa Can Terzi
Namık Günay Erkal
Nazlı Arslan
Printing:
Pelin Ofset, Ankara
Layout and Cover Design:
Özgün Özçakır
Sena Kayasü
Nilüfer Baturayoğlu Yöney
Nurşah Atamtürk
Özgün Özçakır
Seda Naniç
Sena Kayasü
Taiwo Samuel Orisalade
Tijana Veljkovic
Tuğçe Halıcı
Tuğçe Türk
Yanming Wu
Yasemin Çakır
Yelyzaveta Nesterova
Yihan Li
Yonca Atabay
Table of Contents
Introducing NIT Urban Heritage Lab and
the Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities Program 5
Fokke Gerritsen
Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities: Course Aims and Overview 7
Özgün Özçakır, Fokke Gerritsen, Aysel Arslan
Once the Belly of Istanbul: Unkapanı as a Food Provisioning Center 10
Namık Günay Erkal
A Plan for the Transformation of Unkapanı Mill into an Educational Complex 16
Mehmet Alper
Project Proposals
Unkapanı Community Garden:
By the Community, for the Community 32
Yelyzaveta Nesterova, Batoul Mesdaghi, Tijana Veljkovic, Gülhayat Kılcı, Yonca Atabay
Adaptive Transformation of the Mill through Urban Promenade:
Monologue, Dialogue, Travelogue 42
Miraç Ayça Türkfiliz, Mustafa Can Terzi, Seda Naniç, Tuğçe Halıcı, Yihan Li
Unkapanı Beyond the Walls:
Regeneration of Urban Space Through the Recovery of Post-Industrial Places 52
Cem Balcan, Elif Leblebici, Nurşah Atamtürk, Tuğçe Türk, Yanming Wu
Unkapanı Flour Mill:
An Urban Catalyzer 60
Aybüke Safi, Yasemin Çakır, Meriç Altıntaş Kaptan, Merve Torlak, Nazlı Arslan,
Sena Kayasü, Taiwo Samuel Orisade
Reflections on Project Proposals
A Multidisciplinary Studio on the Sustainability of Urban Industrial Heritage 70
Nilüfer Baturayoğlu Yöney
Recovering Unkapanı for a Different Future: Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities 72
Harry Reddick
4NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Unkapani Flour Mill
Source: NIT Archive
5
Introducing NIT Urban Heritage Lab and
the Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities Program
The Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT)
has initiated and participated in cultural heritage
related projects for more than ten years and plans to
maintain cultural heritage as a core field of activity
also for the upcoming years. In 2021, it therefore
decided to integrate and expand its heritage related
programs under the title of NIT Urban Heritage Lab .
NIT Urban Heritage Lab aims to address
contemporary issues at the intersections of urban
life, heritage and sustainability. It starts from the
notion that tangible and intangible cultural heritage
is critical in maintaining the livability of cities and
the sustainability of urban life. It is also convinced
that cultural heritage is not a straightforward stock
of historic buildings, landscapes and traditions.
Cultural heritage is in a constant state of creation,
selective preservation and change. It is constructed
in dialogue between past and present, and in
ongoing discussions between different interests
and discourses.
How to deal with urban cultural heritage under
today’s spatial, environmental and climatic pressures,
is therefore something that needs to be constantly
discussed, that requires consensus building and that
asks for multidisciplinary approaches. It also requires
a new generation of researchers, preservationists,
designers and policy makers that can integrate
these different aspects and that can help achieve
sustainable and inclusive heritage practices. UHL
hopes to contribute to an environment where such
dialogue can take place and where new generations of
heritage specialists can emerge. It wants to help build
bridges between academic research and education,
architectural and landscape design, urban policy
and planning, and public participation. Moreover,
as a Dutch organization in Türkiye, NIT aims to
provide opportunities for international dialogue
and exchange.
The inaugural program of NIT Urban Heritage
Lab took place from September to December 2021 and
was titled Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities.
It consisted of several, integrated elements: a series
of public webinars, a semester-long academic course
for advanced students and young professionals and a
research and design project relating to an industrial
heritage site in the historical peninsula of Istanbul,
the Unkapanı Flour Mill. The Industrial Heritage
for Sustainable Cities program was organized in
partnership with and with financial support from
the Netherlands Consulate General in Istanbul and
LDE Centre for Global Heritage and Development.
About this book
The present book is one of the outcomes of
the inaugural program of NIT Urban Heritage Lab.
Following an introduction on the course, its scope
and aims, it showcases the four proposals that the
participants of the Industrial Heritage for Sustainable
Cities Course developed for the transformation of the
Unkapanı Flour Mill. The proposals are original,
thought-provoking and inspirational, while at
the same time based on solid multi-disciplinary,
collaborative work. As such, they are perfect
demonstrations of what NIT Urban Heritage Lab
tries to achieve.
The book includes chapters on the history of
the Unkapanı Flour Mill in its urban context by
Namık Erkal, and on a plan developed under the
responsibility of Mehmet Alper to transform the
building remains into a university campus. Two
scholars, Nilüfer Baturayoğlu Yöney and Harry
Reddick reflect on the proposals in the final chapters.
Fokke Gerritsen
Netherlands Institute in Turkey
6NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Course participants and instructors at MüzeGazhane
Source: NIT Archive
7
Introduction
In the autumn of 2021, the Netherlands Insti-
tute in Turkey (NIT) offered a graduate-level course
entitled “NIT Urban Heritage Lab: Industrial Heri-
tage for Sustainable Cities” that addressed the chal-
lenges and possibilities for transforming industrial
heritage from a multi-disciplinary perspective. A
group of 26 participants affiliated with Turkish and
Dutch institutions was selected from many applica-
tions to generate creative ideas for the sustainable
transformation of Unkapanı Flour Mill. The course
participants represented diversity in nationality,
disciplinary background, and interests. Among the
participants were young professionals and students
of architecture, urban planning, conservation of
cultural heritage, heritage studies, art history, and
archaeology.
Although the focus of the course was on
Unkapanı Flour Mill in Istanbul, it was meant to
provide insights into global practices for trans-
forming and reusing industrial heritage places. It
assessed multi-disciplinary approaches to respond
to the challenges that industrial heritage places in
urban seings confront. To this end, the course
brought researchers and practitioners from different
disciplines together for interdisciplinary debates
on the transformation of industrial heritage places,
focusing on sustainability, circularity, and inclu-
sivity in theory and practice.
In that regard, the course aimed to provide
training in sustainable transformations of industrial
heritage in an international academic seing and to
create an environment for exchange and discussion
between scholars, professionals, governmental agen
-
cies, and community organizations.
An Overview: Industrial Heritage for
Sustainable Cities
“Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities” ran
between September and December 2021 and was
conducted in a hybrid (both online and face-to-face)
format and consisted of four parts as follows:
- Weekly online public lectures and discussions
presented by leading scholars from the Netherlands
and Türkiye (September 2021);
- A three-day intensive program in Istanbul
with site visits and on-site assignments (7, 8, and
9 October 2021);
- Development of a project on Unkapanı Flour
Mill in Istanbul with online studio presentations
and discussions/critiques on participants’ progress
(October-December 2021);
- Public presentation of the course participants’
project proposals (10 December 2021).
The first part of the course was a four-week-
long online lecture series during which simulta-
neous English and Turkish translation was provided
to reach a wider audience. Every week the course
focused on a particular theme on the current issues
of the industrial heritage in the Netherlands and
Türkiye revolving around this central question:
In what ways can industrial heritage places be
transformed, considering their tangible and intan-
gible values and their multiple dimensions (cultural,
environmental, social, economic), to achieve urban
inclusivity, sustainability, circularity, and public
engagement?
During the second part of the education
program, the course participants met with the
instructors in Istanbul on 7, 8, and 9 October for an
Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities:
Course Aims and Overview1
Özgün Özçakır, Middle East Technical University
Fokke Gerritsen, Netherlands Institute in Turkey
Aysel Arslan, Netherlands Institute in Turkey
8NIT Urban Heritage Lab
intensive program of in-person lectures, field trips,
on-site surveys, and workshops. The field trips were
organized to BeykozKundura, an old leather and shoe
factory transformed into a film plateau, and Müze-
Gazhane, the Hasanpaşa Gasworks converted into a
cultural center. The course participants witnessed
the transformation of these two sites. They also had
the chance to learn more about the architectural,
social, and economic dimensions of transforma-
tion processes and the plural voices of multiple
stakeholders.
The Unkapanı Flour Mill and its surroundings
were our case study and the main focus of the second
part of the course. The participants were asked to
form four main groups to prepare a final project
proposal on the transformation of Unkapanı Flour
Mill. The three-day-long, intense, on-site meeting
in Istanbul concluded with group presentations on
their initial ideas for transforming the Unkapanı
Flour Mill.
Throughout the third part of the education
program (October, November, and December 2022),
the participants continued to work on their final
projects, and online gatherings were organized for
progress meetings where they received feedback
on their projects. They also aended weekly online
public lectures by leading researchers and designers
from the Netherlands and Türkiye during this period.
The projects on the transformation of industrial
heritage places are mostly presented in the third part
in line with the idea that they might be inspirational
for course participants during the development of
their projects for the Unkapanı Flour Mill.
On 10 December 2021, the course participants
presented their projects on the sustainable transfor-
mation and reuse of Unkapanı Flour Mill. This book
presents the projects that the course participants
developed through “Industrial Heritage for Sustain-
able Cities” to answer the contemporary heritage
and sustainability challenges that urban heritage
places confront. As such, the book introduces a wide
array of practical solutions based on the participants’
research questions considering the values and prob-
lems of the mill.
Conclusion
There is an urgency for the conservation,
management, and sustainable development as well
as transformation of historic urban landscapes
to resolve these urban challenges. In this process,
research institutions may contribute by providing
the newest academic insights through working with
various societal partners and establishing a platform
where existing and new knowledge is shared and
discussed. Teaching sustainable transformation to
professionals and researchers at the beginning of
their careers through knowledge-sharing platforms
will contribute to the broader acknowledgment of
sustainability and sustainable development.
The proposals for the transformation and reuse
of the former Unkapanı Flour Mill presented in the
book were developed to emphasize sustainable
development’s role in solving contemporary urban
challenges in multi-layered cities like Istanbul. As
such, the hypothetical projects for the mill designed
by the course participants are essential to indicate
the role of new interventions in achieving urban
sustainability.
9
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Nether-
lands Consulate-General in Istanbul and especially
Quirine van der Hoeven and David Naves - respec-
tively, former and current Head of Press, Public
Diplomacy and Cultural Affairs in the Netherlands
Consulate-General in Istanbul and İpek M. Sur
van Dijk - former Senior Policy Officer for Culture,
Public Diplomacy and Press at the consulate. The
authors are also indebted to A. Güliz Bilgin Altınöz
(METU), Anna Mignosa (Erasmus University
Roerdam), Bilge Köse (Columbia GSAPP), Gülsün
Tanyeli (ITU), Yıldız Salman (ITU), Işık Demirtaş
(Gazhane Çevre Gönüllüleri), Nesrin Uçar (Gazhane
Çevre Gönüllüleri), Merve Gedik (Istanbul Metro-
politan Municipality), Gül Köksal (École Natio-
nale Supérieure d’architecture Grenoble), Eda
Yiğit (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University), Hester
Dibbits (Reinwardt Academie), Jonathan Even-Zohar
(Reinwardt Academie), Karin Stadhouders (Leiden
University), Mehmet Alper (TURES Mimarlık,
Kadir Has University), Namık Günay Erkal (TED
University), Indira van Oven (kunstoverall), Nilüfer
Baturayoğlu Yöney (Mustafa Kemal University),
Süreyya Topaloğlu (BeykozKundura), Sinan Çağlar
(Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality), Gülizar Yaşar
(Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality), Umut Bilgiç
(ANB Architecture), Merve Çolak (ANB Architec-
ture), Seray Türkay Coşkun (Stüdyo Nüve, TED
University), Esatcan Coşkun (Stüdyo Nüve, TED
University), Onur Yüncü (Onur Yüncü Architects,
TED University), Yonca Kösebay Erkan (Kadir Has
University), Gülşen Hazal Çatalbaş (ÇEKÜL Foun-
dation) and David Gianoen (OMA). Last but not
least, the course participants deserve the highest
appreciation for their hard work and enthusiasm
through the education program.
Endnotes
1 The text is adapted from “Özçakır, Ö. , Gerritsen,
F. & Arslan, A. (2022). TEACHING SUSTAINABLE
TRANSFORMATION OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE
PLACES: INSIGHTS FROM THE NIT URBAN HERI-
TAGE LAB. TÜBA-KED Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi
Kültür Envanteri Dergisi , 25 , 97-116 . DOI: 10.22520/
tubaked2022.25.008”
10 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Unkapanı, the site of NIT Urban Heritage
Lab 2021, is associated in the present-day mostly
with Türkiye’s music industry. Shops and offices of
music arrangers and managers have been located in
Istanbul Manifaturacılar Çarşısı (Drygoods Market,
İMÇ aer here) in Unkapanı forming one of the
centers of the city’s celebrated music sector. İMÇ is
situated on the eastern side of the large avenue from
Bozdoğan Kemeri (Aqueduct of Valens) leading to the
Unkapanı Bridge on the Golden Horn. The market is a
product of the 1950s and ‘60s’ urban transformations.
A master plan replacing the historic fabric (a compe-
tition winner project won by C. Fındıkoğlu, K. Bayur,
T. Aka, N. Duranay and Ö. Akverdi) was completed in
1960, with the interventions of the Planning Office
and revisions of Italian architect planner Luigi Picci-
nato (Erkol, 2017). İMÇ’s architectural project was
designed by competition winners Doğan Tekeli, Sami
Sisa, and Metin Hepgüler. It follows ‘60s brutalist
architecture and mat-building principles: an urban
fabric formed of courtyards and elevated streets
— an open version of traditional Ooman khans —
placed in topographic levels in between the modern
avenue and historic neighborhoods. The new market
is also well-known for its modern artworks (mosaic
and ceramic murals, sculptures, reliefs) placed on
brutalist surfaces and open spaces.1 İMÇ, one of
the best examples of modernist planning, architec-
ture, and inclusion of art in public spaces, became,
ironically, the ground for an unexpected subaltern
culture’s emergence: the arabesque.
Aer the 1970s, shops and offices of music
arrangers and managers in İMÇ aracted young
people from the provinces who pushed their way
towards fame and being music stars. The key to fame
was seen as a music tape or record produced here.
The close relation of İMÇ with Istanbul’s fruit and
vegetable wholesale markets on the Golden Horn,
where immigrants from the provinces found porter
jobs, was probably an initial factor for this araction.
Since İMÇ emerged as a celebrated center of the
music industry, the name where the marketplace
is located, Unkapanı, became its generic label (near
more specifically “Plakçılar Çarşısı”, i.e. Marketplace
of Music Records). As such, Unkapanı became the
stage of many musical films based on the young
arabesque and folk-pop musicians’ dramatic road
to success or failure. There have also been films to
satirize the fantasy world formed around the music
industry at Unkapanı, the most famous of which is
“Firuze” directed by Ezel Akay. With all this recent
historical background, when the belly of the city and
Unkapanı are used in the same heading, such as in
this article, most people will first recall arabesque
music and oriental belly dance. In fact, the music
industry in Unkapanı has faded in the 2000s and
lost its glamor. Roads to fame no longer pass through
here.
2
There are only a few shops and offices le,
which are historical displays of antique musical
materials. The cliché of belly dance, an orientalist
performance of desire connoted to the Middle East
and Istanbul, has also lost its araction with the
exception of cheap touristic entertainment.
The belly of Istanbul refers here to another type
of trade related to the location: food. Unkapanı was
one of the food provisioning centers in Ooman
Istanbul from the 15th century to the mid-20th
century. By introducing Unkapanı’s past major char-
acter, its urban history between the early modern
period to the construction of İMÇ, including the
specific site of NIT Urban Heritage Lab 2021: the
Unkapanı Factory, will be briefly covered.
Once the Belly of Istanbul:
Unkapanı as a Food Provisioning Center
Namık Günay Erkal
TED University
11
When the Oomans took Constantinople in
1453, the seled areas of the fortified city were mainly
clustered towards the Golden Horn harbor and across
Galata walled quarter, constructed by the Genoese
aer the mid-13th century. The Golden Horn quays
were formed of an extra-mural strip in front of the
fortifications, the walls of which dated back to the
4th century AD and/or were reconstructed in the
early 9th century. The maritime customs, harbor
facilities, market places, and merchant quarters
were placed on the inside and outside of the fortifi-
cations connected by a series of landing stages and
gates, some of which were part of the Italian city
state’s concession quarters. Aer taking the city, the
Oomans removed the concessions but preserved
and restructured the existing urban paern as a
kilometer-long continuous harbor zone reserved
for different trade items (Kafesçioğlu, 2019: 30-37).
These were customhouses acting at the same time
as wholesale markets where official weights and
measures were established: namely, kapans. From
the entrance of the harbor, the customs and whole-
sale markets were lined up as: the Palace quays; the
Great Customs for drygoods; kapans for slaves, salt,
fruit and vegetables, wood and building materials;
and, innermost of the harbor zone, grain and fish.
Some of these places, gates, and landing stages as
well as the immediate neighborhoods were named
aer these kapans; such as Unkapanı, which literally
meant “flour weighing scale” but referred to the
official grain weighing and distribution center or
the grain wholesale market.3
Unkapanı was positioned in front of the fih
maritime gate of the Ooman city (Platea Gate in the
Byzantine period) on the Golden Horn. The intra-
mural area of this gate was one of the flaest lands
inside Golden Horn fortifications and where the
easiest sloped street to the top of the city’s ridges
commenced. The gate was also easily accessible to
great imperial religious foundations such as the Fatih
and Süleymaniye complexes. While the customhouse
and market were situated on the extra-mural sector of
the city gate, the interior neighborhood was spoed
by many grain mills and bakeries. This kind of func-
tional distribution can be a reason for the use of the
name Unkapanı for a larger area including several
neighborhoods.
How the grain wholesale trade (of barley, rye,
and mainly wheat) was organized defined the archi-
tectural scale and spatial layout of Unkapanı. The
Ooman state —like some early modern European
states but unlike many others— did not choose to
keep public grain reserves in great amounts. With
the exception of emergency reserves for the army,
palace, and religious foundations, grain reserves
were kept by the millers and bakers of the city. Each
establishment had to put aside a six months reserve.
This kind of distributed reserve organization helped
the state to get rid of the difficulties in keeping large-
scale public granaries.
Unkapanı consisted of a waterfront customs
square with a market house (divanhâne) and a store-
house (mahzen). The market house —very much
like its European counterparts— was a wooden
structure with offices and sofas elevated on pillars
to survey the flow of imports. It also functioned as
a customs court (lonca) where prices were defined,
tax tariffs were decided, and the quality of grain was
controlled. The sheltered space on the ground floor
was an extension of the customs square and included
a coffee shop. The weighing scale that gave its name
to Unkapanı was located near this area, maybe under
the market house. The magazine —called Beylik
12 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Mahzen (seigniorial magazine)— was a more monu-
mental 900 m² building with stone walls, a single gate,
and a very high lead-covered hipped-roof. There were
shops built aached to the waterside and the way
leading to the city gate. The magazine was rebuilt
under the supervision of Master Architect Sinan in
the mid-16th century, which he called the Greatest
Magazine. This unassuming building was actually
one of the greatest structures in the Ooman harbor
and formed a landmark in situating other buildings
around Unkapanı. Besides, the magazine was a small
mosque (Subaşı Süleyman or Unkapanı Mosque)
elevated above shops and small depots. It was first
constructed as a hipped-roof structure and then
reconstructed as a domed building in the time of
Mimar Sinan (Master Architect Sinan). This version
gave way to a hipped-roof building once again in
the 18th century with an imperial lodge in front for
watching the customs square. This mosque and its
minaret would be reconstructed in the 19th century
and demolished in the 1940s. The present replica
of the last mosque is not situated in its historical
position but further east. It should not be taken as a
topographical reference.
The road between the magazine and the mosque
led to the Unkapanı Gate and the intra-mural high
street lined by millers and bakers. The mills in
Istanbul were mainly horse mills; the related equip-
ment of millstones and horse wares were also on sale
around this district. The mills and baker shops were
simple structures usually located under domestic
buildings and within domestic neighborhoods. This
was the weak point in the Ooman grain reserve
strategy. Since the neighborhoods were largely made
of wooden structures they could perish in great fires
with some part of the public reserves.
Unlike the intra-mural sectors of other harbor
neighborhoods, the impact of harbor and trade did
not penetrate much into the Unkapanı gate. There
were a few large khans in the near vicinity, which
was mostly formed of residential areas. Of the few
religious endowments, Yavuzer Sinan Mosque from
the late 15th century is the most important to form a
continuous reference point through visual sources
from different periods. The site of NIT Urban Heri-
tage Lab is not marked by any clear reference from
the 15th to early 19th century. It is possible that the
land was at least partially imperial property since it
was later selected for development.
The grain provisioning system was transformed
by the early 18th century when the state became
more involved in keeping public reserves. While
large granaries for this purpose were formed in the
Imperial Arsenal across the Unkapanı market, other
granaries were constructed on the Bosporus in the
late 18th and early 19th centuries. In all these stages
the wholesale market and its buildings stayed the
same. The main difference would be the first Golden
Horn bridge’s construction in 1836, whose southern
end was placed beside the Unkapanı square. The
imperial lodge was also restored for this occasion.
A few years aer this event and the Anglo-British
trade treaty that opened the way for international
imports with low dues, it is seen in the sources that
a new building for housing a steam mill would be
constructed near the grain market with instruments
imported from Britain. Charles White who stayed
in Istanbul for three years in the 1840s noted in his
book that the steam mill existed on the le side of
the high street from inside the Unkapanı Gate. Mili-
tary Chief Serasker Halil Paşa was the entrepreneur
of this project for the state (White, 1845, vol3: 117).
The same mill was rented to Armenian imperial
13
military bakers Haçador and Kigork in 1844,
4
which
can be spoed in 1858-63 Stolpe Map, covering one
urban block on the high street. In the first panoramic
photographs of the city by Robertson taken in the
early 1850s, the mill can be seen as a high building
at the back of the Unkapanı magazine. These are the
first visual references for the NIT Urban Heritage Lab:
Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities Course’s
project site.
In 1862 the steam mill was put on sale, which
was finally taken over by the military, thereaer
named the Imperial Military Mill (Asâkir-i Şâhâne
Değirmeni) and also the imperial factory (Fabrika-i
Hümâyun). In the 1870s the area of the mill was
enlarged towards the east as part of a partial urban
regularization plan, and new buildings were added.5
The plots around the mill were combined to form
a factory area. The facilities consisted of the mill
and bread producing parts. The enlarged factory
with high chimneys can be observed in the late
19th century photographs as the largest industrial
complex within the historical city’s silhouee. Mean-
while, since dues in interior trade were abolished in
the 1860s, Unkapanı as an official market became
obsolete, whose buildings, now overshadowed by
the factory, started to be used for its service. A new
street from the factory to the waterfront was opened
within the old fortification plot paern passing in
front of Yavuzer Sinan Mosque and the old Unkapanı
magazine. Narrow gauge-way lines were established
between the factory and the quay. The waste water
was also canalized to the Golden Horn through this
path, which was mentioned in the official documents
as the first signs of the city’s industrial pollution.6
The factory in its working years should have devel-
oped a workers’ quarter in relation to the surrounding
neighborhoods.
In the 1920s the military factory was taken over
by the municipality that functioned partially until
the İMÇ project. During the İMÇ project parts of
the mill sectors of the factory, which dated from
the 1840s, were demolished. The project that took
the historical fabric as a reference resulted in the
destruction of parts of the existing fabric around.
The process of destruction continued; those in situ
today mainly belong to the former service functions
(Kariptaş, 2011).
The urban history of Unkapanı is about the
endurance and transformation of a food provisioning
center neighborhood first by economic and tech-
nological factors and then by a change in market
function to drygoods sale and the music industry.
Through this history of transformations, in the
present, İMÇ itself faces threats of demolition. Even
though the modernist buildings will be preserved,
some of its original music market culture has already
been lost. There is a saying in Turkish such as “music
is the food of the soul”. Food for the soul and food for
the belly both seem to have retreated from Unkapanı.
Proposals for what can take their place or be revital-
ized can be seen in the projects of NIT Urban Heritage
Lab 2021.
Reference List
Erkal, N. (2018). Grain Scale of Ottoman
Istanbul: Architecture of the Unkapanı Landing
Square. Journal of Urban History. 44(3), 351-381.
Erkal, N. (2020). Reserved Abundance: State
Granaries of early modern Istanbul. The Journal of the
Society of Architectural Historians, 79(1), March, 17-38.
Erkol, I. (2017). Yerel ile Evrenselin Ara Kesitinde
Mimarlık: İstanbul Manifaturacılar Çarşısı (İstanbul
14 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Drygoods Markets: Architecture in between local
and global). Mimarlık, 396.
Kafesçioğlu, Ç. (2019). Constantinopolis/ Istanbul:
Cultural Encounter, Imperial Vision, and the Construction
of the Ooman Capital. The Pennsylvania University
Press.
Kariptaş, S. F. (2011). Unkapanı Değirmeni’nin
Mimari Analizi ve Günümüz Şartlarında Değer-
lendirilmesi (Architectural Analysis of Unkapanı
Mill and its interpretations in present conditions).
Mimarlık, 357.
White, C. (1845). Three Years in Constantinople
or the domestic manners of the Turks in 1844, 3 volumes.
H. Colburn.
Archival documents
The archive document in State Archives of Pres-
idency, MAD.d.. / 12307-0-0.
The archive documents on the sale of the mill
and the transformation to a military factory in 1866:
State Archives of Presidency, MAD.d.. /8720-0-0; A.}
MKT.MHM. / 351-35- 0.
The archival document from 1880 on the collec-
tion of industrial waste from the mill under the
Unkapanı Bridge is: State Archives of Presidency,
ŞD. / 6-25-0.
Endnotes
1
The artworks were realized by celebrated
artists: Bedri Rahmi Eyüpoğlu, Eren Eyüpoğlu
Füreyya Koral, Kuzgun Acar, Yavuz Görey, Ali
Teoman Germener, Sadi Diren, Nedim Günsür.
2 A documentary on Istanbul’s music sector
at the start of Unkapanı’s decline is “Crossing the
Bridge” by celebrated German director Fatih Akın.
3 The references on Unkapanı wholesale
markets in early modern period will be referred here
aer my two articles on the same subject: Namık
Erkal, “Grain Scale of Ooman Istanbul: Architecture
of the Unkapanı Landing Square”, JUH; 44(3), 2018,
351-381; “Reserved Abundance: State Granaries of
early modern Istanbul” JSAH, 79 (1), March 2020,
17-38.
4 The archive document in State Archives of
Presidency is: MAD.d.. / 12307-0-0.
5
The archive documents on the sale of the mill
and the transformation to a military factory in 1866:
State Archives of Presidency, MAD.d.. /8720-0-0; A.}
MKT.MHM. / 351-35- 0.
6
The archival document from 1880 on the
collection of industrial waste from the mill under
the Unkapanı Bridge is: State Archives of Presidency,
ŞD. / 6-25-0.
15
Aer the demolition of the chimney of the large mill, looking Northwest
Image retrieved from hp://eski.istanbulium.net
16 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
A Plan for the Transformation of Unkapanı Mill into an
Educational Complex
Mehmet Alper
TURES Mimarlık & Kadir Has University
Introduction
Unkapanı in Fatih District is an area densely
populated with people and monuments, some
of which have disappeared today. As a result of
Unkapanı’s economic and social character in the
city’s life both today and in the past, these monu-
ments represented commerce, industry, education,
religious services, and accommodation. The history
of the district and its function in providing food to
the city were described in the previous chapter. An
important moment in the urban development of the
area took place in 2006 when Law No. 5366 declared
the neighborhoods in the Süleymaniye District,
namely Demirtaş, Hacı Kadın, Hoca Gıyasein,
Kalenderhane, Molla Hüsrev, Sarıdemir, Süley-
maniye, Yavuz Sinan, the “Süleymaniye Renewal
Area” (Gazee, 2006).
Although this area had been included in the
UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List already in
1985 as a region documenting the development
of Ooman architecture, the spatial destruction
caused by changes in function and use necessitated
an immediate intervention (Fatih Belediyesi, 2012).
Thus Unkapanı was included in the Süleymaniye
Renewal Area. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
and Fatih District Municipality signed protocol no.
1528 on 13.09.2006 for the works to be carried out in
this area with the aim of renewal and protection of
the deteriorated historical and cultural immovable
assets and ensuring their utilization by revitaliza-
tion. The protocol covers 728 registered and 1239
unregistered buildings in a total renovation area
of 938,718 m² divided into five sections. The project
aims to redefine Istanbul and Fatih District as a city
where service sectors, commercial, touristic and
cultural activities coexist and where historical and
cultural values are protected; to ensure that Istanbul
and Fatih create a positive and aractive city effect
at national, international and local levels; to create
a reliable, sustainable and livable urban selement
context that will ensure the protection and survival
of the architectural context resistant to all kinds of
disasters and risks (Faaliyet Raporu, 2012).
The projects to be prepared in regeneration areas
are required to emphasize a preserving approach
sensitive to the architectural and cultural character
of the area. Projects are submied to the Regional
Board for Conservation of Cultural Assets of Renewal
Areas (Yenileme Alanları Kültür Varlıklarını Koruma
Bölge Kurulu) as building block concept projects,
silhouee proposal maps, and recommendations
for functions, together with analytical surveys and
structural studies of the structural accumulation
in the existing context. In line with the building
Figure 1: The Unkapanı Flour
Mill in the urban context
17
block concept projects approved by the Board, appli-
cation projects are prepared and submied to the
Board again. In these projects, the mass ratios and
construction areas of the registered cultural heritage
buildings should remain the same. They also need
to consider the region’s historical development in
a way that will not have a negative impact on the
silhouee of the area. The architectural application
projects approved by the Conservation Regional
Board are evaluated by the District Municipality and
approved for license issuance. During the application
process, the projects are supervised by the Istanbul
Regional Boards for the Conservation of Cultural
Assets of Renewal Areas, the Istanbul Archaeological
Museums Directorate, and the technical staff of Fatih
Municipality. However, the most important respon-
sibility lies with the project developers.
The Regional Board for the Conservation of
Cultural Assets of Renewal Areas No. 1 of Istanbul
of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism approved
the concept project for building block 515 in the
Süleymaniye Renewal Area with the decision dated
19.12.2012 and numbered 476. Block 515 concerns
the remains of the historical Unkapanı Flour Mill.
This chapter outlines the concept project developed
by the author and the project team.
Conservation Decisions
Unkapanı Mill is a building complex with
various structures built to meet different needs.
Before the introduction of the steam system, the
mill of Hacı Bogos Veled-i Kirgor was located on
the Unkapanı Mill plot. The mill was operated with
9 “horos” stones and 16 horses (BOA; MVL, 494/23).
Following this mill’s destruction by fire, the Trea-
sury of the Sultanate purchased the land, and in
1845 the Unkapanı Steam Mill, also known as Beylik
Değirmeni / Belediye Değirmeni, was built. In 1857
and 1865, the mill underwent repairs, and in 1874 an
additional floor was added, a bakery and a barn were
constructed, and the land boundaries were expanded
by acquiring new plots and houses. At the same time,
a railway line to the pier was built, and a private dock
was constructed for the mill. In 1892, the Commander
of the Armies’ Reform Commission for the Impe
-
rial Factory (Osmanlı Devleti Seraskerlik Fabrika-i
Hümayun Islahat Komisyonu) ordered two steam
mills — one large and one smaller — from Hind &
Lund in Britain, and the installation of the machines
was carried out by British Engineer William (BOA;
DH, 185/10248; A.MKT NZD, 46/88).
Figure 2: Süleymaniye
renewal area (hps://kentre-
hberi.fatih.bel.tr/webgis/)
18 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Figure 3: The mill buildings
aer their construction in 1892
(hp://eski.istanbulium.net)
Figure 4: Mill structures, 1899,
Sebah & Joaillier (hp://eski.
istanbulium.net)
Chimney of
the small mill
Large mill
Chimney of
the large mill
Storage and
sleeping
quarters
Small mill
19
Figure 5: Marklin Co’s Map,
ca. 1900. “Moulin à Vapeur
du Gouvernement” i.e. “State
Steam Mill”
Figure 6: Pervititch’s Map,
1933 pl.20A
Lodgement
Granary
Granary
Large mill
Boiler
room
Service
buildings
Garage and
cinema
Garage and
cinema
Storage and sleeping quarters
Storage and
sleeping quarters
Restrooms
Storage
rooms
Storage
rooms
Small mill and storage
Management buildings
Ovens
Substation
Lodgement Service
buildings Restrooms
Substation
Large mill
Boiler
room
Ovens
20 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Figure 7: Aer the demolition
of the chimney of the large
mill, looking southeast (Image
retrieved from hp://eski.
istanbulium.net)
Figure 8: Aerial photo from 1952
(GDM, 1952 R-U-61)
Neighboring
structures
Lodgement
Small
mill
Ovens
Demolished
large mill
Small mill
chimney
Storage and
sleeping quarters
21
Figure 9: Aerial photo from
1966 pl. 174
Figure 10: Changes in the
Unkapanı Mill from aerial
photos between 1942 and 1966
Ovens
Lodgement
Small mill
İMÇ block built above
the demolished
large mill
Small mill chimney
Small mill
chimney Small mill
chimney
Ovens Ovens
Small mill Small mill
Atatürk
Boulevard Atatürk
Boulevard
Large mill İMÇ block
built above the
demolished
large mill
22 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
As Atatürk Boulevard was opened, first the
chimney of the large mill, then the defunct building
was demolished. During the construction of the İMÇ
blocks, the large mill building’s plot was allocated to
these blocks, and the small mill’s chimney was also
demolished. In the 1980s, the defunct complex was
purchased by the Mercantile Exchange and managed
as a parking lot. Today, the Unkapanı Mill remains
to be used as a parking lot, with its roof and floors
collapsed and destroyed.
Due to urban planning requirements, it is
currently not feasible for the Unkapanı Mill on
Sheet 121, Block 515, Plot 1, within the Golden Horn
silhouee of the Historic Peninsula to maintain
its old function. The ideal solution for preserving
a cultural asset for the future is to retain its orig-
inal form and function with minimal intervention.
However, changing social and economic relations
necessitate re-evaluating the existing urban spaces
and the structures that define them. Here, it becomes
essential to carefully consider and evaluate the inte-
gration of the preservation principles of historical
buildings or the environment with the current real-
ities of life. Therefore, we believe that maintaining
the Unkapanı Mill as an educational facility is the
best solution for the public interest, for the general
conservation plans of Istanbul, and for the preserva-
tion of the complex at the scale of a single building.
The project design of Unkapanı Mill as an urban
headquarter with an educational (university) func-
tion is in progress. With an indoor area of 13,372 m²,
the building will house the rectorate, a multipur-
pose conference hall, a library, administrative and
academic departments, institutes, staff and technical
units, a cafeteria, a restaurant, and wet areas. The
restoration project will preserve the surviving bo dy
Figure 11: Unkapanı Mill’s
dilapidated buildings and
courtyard repurposed as a
parking lot, 1980,
Taç Foundation Archive
23
Figure 12:
Measured drawings,
façades
24 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
walls on the southeast, southwest, and northeast
wings and reconstruct the two collapsed chimneys.
While the chimney of the large mill will be rebuilt
with modern materials (steel bearing and mesh
covered), the small mill chimney will be conserved
with bricks similar to the original. The archaeo-
logical remains of the foundations uncovered by
excavations carried out under the supervision of the
Archaeological Museum will be preserved. This area
will be exhibited with a glass cover on the floor of
the Foyer Area located northwest of the Conference
Hall in the project.
The project comprises a ground floor with three
regular floors and a basement. The basement floor
is 1,475.48 m², the ground floor is 3,796.85 m², the
first floor is 4,006.19 m², the second floor is 3,447.96
m², and the third floor is 645.52 m². Access to the
ground floor of the education building is through
four main entrances. These are the entrance on the
eastern corner of the block, which is also the entrance
to the Unkapanı Mill, two entries on the southeast
wing, and the entrance on the northeast, which is
designed for disabled access. Moreover, a fire exit to
Unkapanı Street has also been designed to provide
the building with access in case of emergencies (see
the door numbered ZK58 in the ground floor plan).
The building has a total of eight staircases (four
in the southwest, two in the center, and one staircase
each in the southeast and northeast wings) and four
elevators on the northeast wing, which provide circu-
lation between the floors. There is a technical unit
and a warehouse in the southeast wing of the base-
ment floor, two warehouses, two halls, two technical
units in the southwest, and a hall and a technical unit
in the northwest wing.
The southeast wing on the ground floor
comprises three entrances, a security room, a data
processing room, a corridor, five restrooms (one of
which is for disabled access), and two stage prep
rooms. The southwest wing includes a corridor, a
seminar room, three classrooms, a storage room,
two cafeterias, a hall, a janitorial room, and two
restrooms.
The northwest wing consists of two halls, two
corridors, four elevators, four classrooms, three
restrooms (one disabled), a janitorial room, a storage
room, and a fire exit. Finally, the northeast wing has
an entrance, a corridor, six offices, and two security
rooms. The archaeological assets are exhibited in
the center alongside a foyer and a conference hall.
On the first floor’s southeast wing are a terrace, a
corridor, three halls, three restrooms, two prep rooms,
a seminar room, a meeting room, and two offices.
The southwest wing has a corridor, seven offices, a
cafeteria, a hall, two restrooms, and a maintenance
room. The northwest wing has a hall, two corridors,
four elevators, four classrooms, three restrooms
(one for disabled access), and a maintenance room.
The northeast wing has a hall, a corridor, twelve
offices, and a restroom. The central part of this floor
is designed as a gallery above the conference hall
and a foyer.
On the southeast wing of the second floor, there
are two classrooms and a hall, one of which has a
lounge. There are four classrooms and a corridor, an
office and a hall, a cafeteria, one maintenance room,
two restrooms, and a hall on the southwest. The
northwest wing has a hall, a corridor, four elevators,
four classrooms, a maintenance room, and three
restrooms (one for disabled access). The northeast
wing has two offices, a meeting room, and two halls;
the central wing has four offices, a meeting room, a
simultaneous translation room, three rooms, and
a hall.
25
Figure 13: Borders of the
exhibition of the
archaeological area
Figure 14: Restoration project,
perspectives
Figure 15: Restoration project,
façade
26 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
The southeast-northwest and northeast wings
do not have a third floor. The layout of the southwest
wing is organized as a stair hall, a terrace, and two
storage rooms. In the central part towards north-
east-southwest, there is a stair hall, kitchen, and
restaurant.
The roof constructions and roof coverings of
the building will be made per the restitution, and a
skylight roof system will be added on the northwest
wing.
The Methodology of Restoration Applica-
tions and Intervention Techniques
The methodological proposals for the resto-
ration and adaptive reuse of the Unkapanı Mill have
been based on its restitution and the archaeological
data. The plans include strengthening the founda-
tions of the surviving body walls of the building by
opening the foundations from the interior. This
way, we will create a basement floor at -5.90m in
the exposed areas and add a mechanical space to
accommodate heating, cooling, ventilation, and
electromechanical solutions by utilizing new tech-
nologies. Based on the georadar data, we do not
expect to find any remains of the building in the
area of the large mill building, which was destroyed
during the construction of the İMÇ blocks. When
-
ever necessary, foundations will be reinforced with
minimal intervention in their original locations, and
the load-bearing steel system will be supported in
their original locations.
The Regional Board for the Protection of Cultural
Assets decided to expand the existing archaeolog-
ical area with the decision dated 12.06.2013 and
numbered 882. According to the restitution data,
the archaeological excavations of the site intended
to be exhibited in the project will be carried out under
the supervision of the Archaeology Museum. The
excavations will start aer the archaeological drilling,
and foundation applications are made according
to the restitution data and following the decision
that the applications above the ground level will not
damage the archaeological area. The remains of the
archaeological site will be preserved and exhibited
with glass panels and raised platforms.
Material analyses will be conducted regarding
the existing building walls, and the necessary rein-
forcements will be completed using the original
materials. The missing pieces in the rubble and alter-
nating walls will be filled, and repairs will be made
to the joints and the plaster. The missing structural
elements will be completed as per the restitution
plans.
The new buildings will be constructed with steel
construction solutions and covered with brick or
alternating wall features to preserve authentic mate-
rials and styles. Following the restitution project,
window and door openings will be created in the
same proportions.
Upon the conclusion of the archaeological exca-
vations, the materials obtained from the mill floor
will be restored and exhibited in their original color
and dimensions.
The buildings with no existing floors will be
elevated according to their restitution and function
and will be made of wood and steel to match the
original.
The roofs will be made of wood and steel
construction insulated by layers of Marseilles tiles
and lead-colored zinc roofing. Corten (artificial rusted
zinc) will be applied to the newly proposed addi-
tional façade, which resembles the visual effect of
27
Figure 17: Restoration project,
section and façade
Figure 16: Restoration project,
ground floor plan
28 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
the rusted sheet metal surfaces on the façade of the
old building located on Block 400 plot 5 on Yeni
Hayat Street.
By using novel technologies for the electro-
mechanical system, the external units for heating,
cooling, and ventilation systems are installed
beneath the floor, so they do not create any visual
pollution. Mechanical systems such as ventilation
ducts will be displayed within the building, thus
allowing visitors to perceive the additional modern
systems in the building.
According to the restitution data, two chim-
neys were part of the building; however, they are
not present, so these will be reconstructed. By
directing the mechanical systems to these chimneys,
the exhaust of dirty air will be led through these
chimneys. Furthermore, the second chimney will
be designed in a transparent modern construction
style. Laser-assisted light shows and visual effects
will be organized on special occasions.
The archaeological remains will be restored
and exhibited below protective glass flooring per
the permissions and recommendations of the
Renovation Board and the Archaeological Museum.
At the same time, the restoration process and the
old mechanical system of the mill building will be
displayed in the exhibition areas.
Reference List
Websites
Fatih Belediyesi (n.d.). Coğrafi Bilgi Sistemi.
Retrieved August 25, 2017, from hps://kentrehberi.
fatih.bel.tr/webgis/
Fatih Belediyesi (2012). Faaliyet Raporu. Retrieved
June 5, 2017, from https://www.fatih.bel.tr/tr/
main/read/dosyalar/?file=57bdedd706b7475d8e-
90faa268a6dbba.pdf
Photographs
Taç Foundation
http://eski.istanbulium.net Photographs
retrieved on June 5, 2017.
Maps
Dağdelen, İ. (Ed.). (2007). Charles Edouard Goad’ın
İstanbul Sigorta Haritaları. İstanbul Büyükşehir Bele-
diyesi Kütüphane ve Müzeler Müdürlüğü.
Marklin Co’s Map, (Atatürk Kitaplığı
Hrt-000812)
Pervititch, J. (2000). Jacques Pervititch Sigorta
Haritalarında İstanbul / Istanbul in the Insurance Maps of
Jacques Pervititch. Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları.
Aerial Photos
General Directorate of Maps (Republic of
Türkiye, Ministry Of National Defence General
Directorate of Mapping)
Gazette Decisions
Gazee, 2006: The decision of the Council of
Ministers numbered 2006/10501 published in the
Official Gazee dated 22.06.2006 and numbered
29
26206.
Archival Documents
BOA Başkanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (Prime Minister
Ooman Archives)
A.MKT NZD Sadaret Mektubî Kalemi Nezaret
ve Devair Yazışmaları Evrakı
DH Dahiliye Nezareti
MVL Sadaret Mektubî Kalemi Meclis-i Vâlâ
Evrakı
Project Team
Project Coordinator
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Alper
Prepared by
Diğdem Erdoğan
Master Architect Restoration Architect
Pelin ÇOBAN
Master Architect Restoration Architect
Mehmet Nurel
Master Architect Restoration Architect
Birsu Altınışık
Master Architect
Evşen Ocak
Architect
Tolga Altınışık
Architect
Kübra Şeyda Yıldırım
Architect
Özge Baysal
Restoration Architect
Zemastek Yapı İnşaat Restorasyon Ltd. Şti.
Meun Kocaboy
Real Estate Appraisal and DGSA Expert
Safiye Erkoç
Executive Assistant
Melih Taban
Inter-institutional Document Tracking
Züleyha Yördem
Researcher/Archive Specialist
Mustafa E. Keser
Intern
Meliha Karaca
Intern
Dilara Edemen
Intern
Kübra Fatma Kaya
Intern
Project Proposals
32 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
The structures of the Unkapanı Flour Mill once served as one of the most
important transitory locations for grain in Istanbul in the Ooman Empire and
during the Industrial Revolution. Today, this site no longer functions as a transi-
tory station, and the remains of the depot and the bakery are unused. The site was
vital for and effective in the provision of grain for 400 years. The objective of this
vision statement is to propose guidelines and measures for the temporary reuse
/ experimental use of the Unkapanı Flour Mill to address historical preservation,
community needs and climate risks.
In this study, we have conveyed field studies by implementing the Landscape
Biography and Emotion Networking activities. Relevant information was gathered
from secondary sources and an interview with the Municipal Headman (Muhtar)
of the area. This allowed us to investigate possibilities for temporary use based on
heritage-led development guidelines. Information on climate risks was retrieved
from news reports about climate-related hazards and scenarios from the national
climate adaptation strategy of Türkiye.
Climate Resistance
According to Türkiye’s National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and
Action Plan for 2011-2023, the number of the heavy precipitation days is projected
to increase all over Türkiye according to scenarios until 2040. Heavy precipitation
implies that the daily precipitation is at least 10 kg/m². These impacts are already
visible in Istanbul. One notable example was 2019, when heavy rainfalls caused
flash floods, and one casualty at the Unkapanı bridge. In this respect it is crucial to
design water resources management and operation policies to establish a system
for the optimal balance for risks from disasters.
Climate Risk 1 (Urban Heat): According to Türkiye’s National Climate Change
Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan for 2011-2023, heat waves cause many deaths
occur due to heart aack, cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, respiratory tract
diseases and metabolic diseases. High risk groups, such as the elderly, are vulnerable
to heat stress. Heat waves also negatively impact the productivity of workers, a group
highly present surrounding the Unkapanı Flour Mill. Climate change projections
show that the surface temperature is projected to increase all over Türkiye until 2070
(around 1.5 °C in winter and to about 2.4 °C in summer). High surface temperature
increase the urban heat island effect. Apart from spreading public information
about proper heat-health and heat-related information, reducing the exposure to
heat is also possible and necessary through physical interventions in public areas.
Figure 1: Goals
Introduction
Unkapanı Community Garden:
By the Community, for the Community
Yelyzaveta Nesterova, Batoul Mesdaghi, Tijana Veljkovic,
Gülhayat Kılcı, Yonca Atabay
33
Figure 2:
View from İMÇ - wheat crop
Denition of Values
Unkapanı Flour Mill contains tangible and intangible values as an industrial
heritage. Before developing field-oriented interventions, it is important to identify
and correctly understand these values in order to offer effective recommendations.
We have briefly defined the values of the field that guide our work as follows.
Historic Value
The site played an important role in the trade history of Istanbul and contains
physical layers belonging to different time periods. The industrial structures of the
westernization period of the Ooman Empire reflect the technology of the period
and the life of the society throughout the years.
Age and Rarity Value
The site is one of the few surviving examples of Istanbul's 19th-century
industrial heritage.
Memory Value
The complex is important enough to give its name to the district in which it is
located. The name Unkapanı comes from the Arabic word "kabban", which means
"weighing warehouse". This region on the shores of the Golden Horn was used to
trade flour. The largest mill structure in the district, which has wheat warehouses,
mills, and bakeries on almost every street, is Unkapanı Flour Mill.
Architectural Value
The building is an example of the architectural formation of steam-powered
mill structures built in Istanbul at the end of the 19th century. The building has
architectural value with its design and proportion features, the original function
of a building's architecture, and the contribution and information it provides to
the quality of the daily life experience (Orbaşlı, 2008).
34 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Assessment of Stakeholder Involvement
Believing that synergy in support between different organizations and people
is important for implementation of the effective educational outreach (Apaydın,
2016), we expect that several state and nonstate organizations can provide support
for this educational program. Among them is local municipality, Fatih Municipality,
regional department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism - Istanbul Culture
and Tourism Directorate, and an Istanbul-based NGO, Cultural Awareness Foun-
dation (Kültür Bilincini Geliştirme Vakfı) which is concerned with disseminating
knowledge about heritage of Istanbul. ÇEKÜL Vakfı and TMMOB Mimarlar Odası,
Netherlands Institute in Turkey, Kadir Has University are also potential stakeholders
who can provide input and set up educational programmes.
Sergikur could be involved for the practical aspects of installation of the
memory museum and the speakers who presented Unkapanı in the workshop can
be involved in the content creation. Istanbul Permakultur Kolektifi and other NGOs
would be involved in finding citizens and business interested in wheat production.
Figure 3: Market area
Document Value
It conveys the technology and economic order of the period and reflects a
certain process that the society went through. The document value is not only
related to its structural existence, but also to the technological development of
its age.
Sustainability Value
Sustainability value is a process that aims at many stages and benefits. It has
the potential to create a new perspective on the living environment and quality
of life. In addition to the management of natural resources, it is a value of the area
that has the potential to meet many daily needs such as safety, health, economic,
cultural, and artistic in relation to the place and its environment.
Cultural Value
The building offers information on various aspects of the past era, from life-
style to the use of materials, cras, and techniques (Orbaşlı, 2008).
35
Figure 4: Workshop area
Safety Measures for Experimental Reuse
Prior to opening the site, it is important to detect potential safety risks in order
to provide a safe environment for future visitors. The analysis of the physical state
of the existing structure was based on academic studies of the Unkapanı flour mill
(Seçer, 2002; Reşitoğlu, 2019). For this purpose the following steps are advised:
Reinforcement:
The existing buildings need to be strengthened by additional steel sheer
walls and, where necessary, cross-braces, which can ensure a proper distribution
of forces even during earthquakes.
Consolidation:
Considering the long period of exposure of the existing walls to rainfall,
frosts and other environmental impacts, a damage assessment will be necessary
for proper planning of consolidation works. Interventions like injection grouting
and removal of vegetal roots are strongly advised.
Protection from water infiltration:
In order to prevent water from entering walls and weakening their structure,
it is necessary to plan a water drainage system at ground level and to implement
so capping on top of the exposed walls.
Design Strategies
To ensure readability of the original fabric, inappropriate modern additions
will be removed thus providing an additional entrance between the Unkapanı site
and the İMÇ building (Figure 5).
The existing slope will be used to lead rainwater towards a rain garden in
order to manage excess water drainage. The archeological site will be covered with
glass panels and the surrounding will be lied thus obtaining enough space for
new foundations and drainage installations to prevent digging and damaging the
archeological site (Figure 6).
36 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
The central multifunctional area will be covered by a steel frame inspired by
the original structure. The bakery and museum will be designed in smaller struc-
tures installed between the existing walls (Figure 7).
The patina of the walls will be preserved and complemented with vegetation
to keep the existing visual effect. The vegetation is also important to create shade
during heat waves (Figure 8).
Figure 7 (le):
Definition of closed spaces
Figure 8 (right):
Restoring the visual identity
Figure 9: Proposed plan
Figure 5 (le):
Differentiation of the original
fabric
Figure 6 (right):
Landscape design
37
Value-Based Design Strategies
From the beginning of the project, the most important goal was to make all
the layers and values of the building visible through minimal intervention in the
building. Once the values of the field were determined, each decision was made
by establishing a relationship with the values (Figure 10).
Figure 10: Values and its relation
to proposed project
Archaeological traces in the middle of the building, which continue under-
ground, and the tracing of the walls of the Unkapanı Flour Factory which are known
to have existed in the past but no longer exist today are important in making the
historical layers of the building visible and preserving its memory. The red traces
belong to the walls built of bricks that no longer exist. The building’s gauge has
been preserved on a plan scale in this way. The black traces represent the areas
where archaeological remains are thought to be present in the area. An aempt
is made to provide information about the area by differentiating the ground and
annotating it appropriately (Figure 11).
Figure 11:
Tracking the past of the space
Tracking the past of the space
38 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Educational Outreach
The educational outreach designed for the implementation at the Unkapanı
Community Garden has several aims. Firstly, this outreach seeks to learn what
people think of the place and which ideas and perspectives they have about it.
This step is important to acknowledge the values that people aach to the place,
especially as some of them may not form part of official, scientific statements, also
referred to as Authorized Heritage Discourse (Smith, 2006; Waterton and Watson
2013, 549). Secondly, it aims to inform people about history of the site and raise
awareness about its values, acknowledging that as of now the local community
hardly knows anything about the place, according to the testimony of the local
governor with whom we had an in-depth communication as the research was going
on. Thirdly, the program has an objective to explain practical aspects of the wheat
and flour production which were the activities associated with the former function
of the place. Lastly, the program will examine the controversies associated with the
wheat and flour production in the past and present and will bring up such pressing
present-day issues as waste management and climate change.
These aims can be effectively achieved through the use of experiential learning
pedagogical approach, a widely used approach in heritage education across the
world. Being one of the approaches corresponding to the tenets of the construc-
tivism logic and tenets of learner-centered methods, it is an emphasis on the
Figure 12:
Utilizing modern materials
In order to ensure the visibility of the building in silhouee and to reveal
its memory, we have brought the chimneys back to their feet with a modern and
artistic language. The chimneys were touched with contemporary materials,
referring to the works of artist Edoardo Tresoldi and referencing the past with
steel and light materials. A modern material, corten, was used in the intervention
at the pedestrian entrance, designed in conjunction with the side street belonging
to the İMÇ building (Figure 12).
Materials
39
alteration of the experience which creates a basis for acquiring new knowledge
(Kolb et al., 2001, 228). Also, this pedagogical approach typically requires on-site
presence of participants and is characterized by elaborate implementation of
various hands-on activities (Cole 2015, 122-123).
To begin, the participants will be encouraged to interpret the site in the way
they see it using activities of the Emotion Networking Approach. This approach,
that has made a rather recent appearance in the heritage management and interpre-
tation practice, is based on sharing the diversity of the perspectives and emotions,
whether those are positive, negative, or neutral, about heritage for the sake of
having a beer perspective on it. The process of identifying and naming emotions
results in creation of the so-called "emotional constellations" which demonstrates
complexity and diversity embedded in any heritage site. Importantly, this approach
to interpretation allows to recognize feelings as heritage and as a part of heritage
sites (Rana, Willemsen & Dibbits, 2017). Similar to the pedagogical approach
mentioned above, this approach likewise prioritizes learners, that is, people on
both collective and individual levels.
Figure 13: Analysis: hosting
different functions in the same
space, based on the needs of the
community
Having explained the approaches to be used, it is also worth to describe its
format and structure. The educational program will consist of the following learning
activities. The Emotion Networking will open up the program and is to be conducted
in the first session. This will be a starting point to identify the emotions people
experience towards the site without having any scientific information about it yet.
The program is to be followed with a brief presentation to familiarize participants
with the multilayered history of the site, its former functions, and its values will be
shown in the former cinema space. Another Emotion Networking session is to be
conducted aer participants are introduced to the new information. In this way, it
can be possible to spot out their new emotions and new perspectives about the site.
Aer that, the hands-on activity session will introduce participants to the wheat
growing and manual flour production. In the context of these activities, issues of
climate change and waste management in the association with the agricultural
production will be discussed. Of note, these issues are relevant to both past and
the present. Especially the waste management is the issue affecting the Unkapanı
neighborhood (Fatih, Istanbul) where the site is located today. Finally, Emotion
Networking activity will conclude the event and will provide further perspectives
of the way people see the site.
40 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Whereas the Emotion Networking activity already provides valuable informa-
tion and feedback about the activity, the program will be evaluated using Heritage
Learning Outcomes (HLO) framework which is based on the four fundamental
elements: Key Competences (KC), Generic Learning Outcomes (GLO), Generic
Social Outcomes (GSO), and Specific Learning Outcomes (SLO) (Hansen, 2014, 8).
The benefit of using this approach for the evaluation is that it not only measures
acquired knowledge, but also looks at the deeper maers such as social impact and
possible behavioral change that educational program may have contributed to. This
evaluation will be conducted in the end of the activity, whereas the the Emotion
Networking session will help to ensure that the initial stance of the participants
towards the site is recorded as well.
Figure 14: Exhibition area
41
Reşitoğlu, L. (2019). Unkapanı un değirmenine endüstri mirasının korunması
kapsamında yeni işlev önerisi [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. İstanbul Arel Üniversitesi.
Seçer, F. (2002). Istanbul'daki Osmanlı dönemi değirmenlerinin mimari açıdan ince-
lenmesi ve Unkapanı değirmeni’nin günümüz şartlarında değerlendirimesi [Unpublished
Master’s thesis]. Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi.
Waterton, E., & Watson, S. (2013). Framing theory: Towards a critical imag-
ination in heritage studies. International Journal of Heritage Studies 19(6), 546–561.
hps://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2013.779295
Cole, T. (2015). Understanding and Assessing the Theories Behind Archaeo-
logical Education. Public Archaeology 14(2), 115-136. hps://doi.org/10.1080/1465
5187.2015.1112691
Hansen, A. (2014). The heritage learning framework and the Heritage Learning
Outcomes. In D. Christidou (Ed.), Implementing heritage learning outcomes (pp. 7–24).
Jamtli Förlag.
Kolb, D.A., Boyatzis, R.E., & Mainemelis, C. (2001). Experiential learning
theory: Previous research and new directions. In R. J. Sternberg & L. Zhang (Eds.),
Perspectives on thinking, learning, and cognitive styles (1st ed., pp. 227–247). Routledge.
hps://doi.org/10.4324/9781410605986
Orbaşlı, A. (2008). Architectural conservation: principles and practice. Blackwell
Publising.
Rana, J., Willemsen, M., & Dibbits, H.C. (2017). Moved by the tears of others:
emotion networking in the heritage sphere. International Journal of Heritage Studies,
23(10), 977–988.
Smith, L. (2006). Uses of heritage. Routledge.
Web Sources
Tresoldi, E. (2021). Permanent and temporary installation. Retrieved December
19, 2021 from: hps://www.edoardotresoldi.com/concept/
Landezine. (2011). Earth space: Lidabashi Plano. Retrieved December 19, 2021
from: hps://landezine.com/iidabashi-plano-by-earthscape/
Landscapes. (n.d.) Retrieved December 19, 2021 from: hps://ticcih.org/
about/about-ticcih/dublin-principles/
Rooftop Wheat by Omni Ecosystems in Chicago. (2016). Retrieved
December 19, 2021 from: https://www.urbanhabitatchicago.org/post-list/
rooop-wheat-grown-harvested-and-processed
TICCIH. (2003). The Nyzhny Tagil Charter for the Industrial Heri-
tage. Retrieved December 19, 2021 from: http://orcp.hustoj.com/
the-nizhny-tagil-charter-for-the-industrial-heritage-2003/
The Tostiefabriek project. (n.d.) Retrieved December 19, 2021 from: hps://
downtoearthmagazine.nl/de-eerlijkste-tosti/
Turkey's Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. (2012). Turkey’s National
Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan 2011–2023. Retrieved
December 19, 2021 from: hps://climateadapt.eea.europa.eu/countries-regions/
countries/turkey
Reference List
42 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Adaptive Transformation of the Mill through Urban Promenade:
Monologue, Dialogue, Travelogue
Miraç Ayça Türkliz, Mustafa Can Terzi, Seda Naniç, Tuğçe Halıcı, Yihan Li
Introduction
Identities allow us to make sense of who we are and can help in maintaining
one's well-being, especially if the identity is meaningful and important to the indi-
vidual. Social Identity Theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) helps us understand the
motivations of identity construction. Tajfel (1978, 63) defined social identities as
"that part of an individual's self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his
membership of a social group (or groups), together with the value and emotional
significance aached to that membership." SIT is a social psychological theory
that describes how people conceptualize themselves in terms of groups- through
group membership, processes, and intergroup group relations (Hogg, 2006). SIT
indicates that individuals are, in part, motivated to identify themselves as group
members because of the need for positive self-esteem. One of the ways identities
are constructed is through self-categorization, where individuals define themselves
in terms of social categories such as race, religion, and gender.
Since food preparation, food consumption, and food purchase are oen
simultaneously individual and social processes as individuals procure, prepare,
and consume food that is also demanded by others, and alongside others in food
establishments and since the food and food practices have become a communi-
cation tool between individuals, and the maintenance of types of eating practices
are thus part of that group's social identity.
Unkapanı has a long-time entanglement with food as it once engaged in food
production, food distribution and now has a rich culinary heritage. Therefore, the
authors propose this project through the lens of food.
Figure 1: Historical analysis
43
Research Results
Issues
An online survey with 39 participants was conducted to understand the
perception and awareness of the knowledge about Unkapanı Flour Mills. Partic-
ipants' profile was as follows: 25+ age, well educated, working-class, living in
Istanbul (at least for the past 7 years) women and men. All participants know the
area quite well, they either visit or pass through the area several times during one
year for various reasons. Safety is one of the important issues that need to be taken
into consideration for the location. It is not perceived as safe during the evening
however their perception is not the same during the day.
İMÇ, Music Industry (once), Haliç, and old Istanbul connotations are the most
remembered ones for Unkapanı. The area is not known about its flour mills or any
related history, especially about bakeries and multicultural inhabitants.
Figure 2: Unkapanı free associa-
tion received from the survey
According to the observations made in the region and the results of the research,
there are some problems with the area listed below.
• About the environment
− The poor state of conservation
− Risk for the structure itself
− Security
− Recognition of the place
− Lack of awareness
• Social Inclusion: Boundaries between local and immigrants
− Lack of sense of belonging of
(i) people working there
(ii) immigrants living there
44 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Values
Potentials
Although there exist lots of problems to be solved, Unkapanı district also
contains abundant values which provide possibilities if it is well reused. At the
economic level, it has commercial and industrial values. Moreover, social and
cultural values of this area are more prominent due to its diversified resources:
musicians and art, world heritage site, intangible values and traditions, cuisine
(Vefa Bozacısı, Unkapanı Pilavcısı), rituals (Ayın Biri Church), religious buildings
(mosques, churches), educational buildings (primary schools, high schools, univer-
sities, libraries), structures (Valens aqueduct, İMÇ, SSK, Galata Bridge, traditional
houses, Beyazıt Tower, Eminönü-Kadıköy Pier).
Potentials can help to revive the lost value of the site and neighborhood and
bring solutions to problems. Several possible potentials were found aer analyzing
existing problems and values (Table 1).
Table 1: Possible potentials aer
conservation and adaptive reuse
project
New economic and social developments can be provided with interventions
to the site, as defined in Table 1. In addition to that, some implementations can
support these interventions to strengthen the positive effects of the interventions.
For instance, the missing dialogue of the building can be established, and the old
flour mill can interact with the neighborhood.
Moreover, to understand the potential of creating an industrial memory route,
the link between the site and industrial heritage sites in the area are analyzed
(Figure 3).
Social
Economic
Reconstruction of industrial memory
Revival of the production zone
Integration of local society to local economy and contributions
to local development of the area.
Rising awareness related to existing flour mills in Istanbul
and the area
Establishing a dialogue with sea and historical layers by
abstracting the chimneys
Preparedness of Risk Management Plan for the site
Creating industrial memory routes
Physical intervention for the conservation and structural
problems
Integration of students to the neighbourhood
Implementation
45
Figure 3: Analysis for under-
standing the industrial heritage
nearby the flour mill
Conservation and Adaptive Reuse Project
The research revealed that the link between values are missing. To create
that link and fulfill the site’s potential, the project is based on creating a dialogue
between local, site, and neighborhood. The decisions are taken to establish the
dialogue, and interventions to the site are suggested accordingly.
The decisions are considered in three scales:
− macro: the neighborhood;
− meso: Unkapanı flour mill;
− micro: local community.
Macro
Establishing an industrial route will help create the dialogue between the site
and old industrial zones & intangible heritage (Figure 4). A historical flour road
route will be created. People following the route can understand how flour traveled
from mills to bazaars and interacted with intangible heritage. For example, when
travelers visit the heritage sites with a completed tour, they can stop at Unkapanı
Pilavcısı and have a quick lunch as locals.
46 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Figure 4: Suggested industrial
memory route
Meso
The sites and neighborhood’s missing function is always related to food. At
first, the site was the point of food distribution, and later it was the point of food
production. In that case, to revive the missing food function, the decision is taken
in the direction of food consumption. As a result, to create the dialogue between
the site and neighborhood, society, refugees, and the sea, the idea of opening a
cultural bakery was chosen. In addition to the cultural bakery, several functions are
assigned to different spaces (Figure 5). The potential of fo od to create dialogue aims
to tackle the problems at the meso scale. In addition to the project’s food function,
common spaces aim to integrate locals into the site and help them interact with
each other. For example, the municipality can use a workshop for some bread-
making classes, and it can help create a bond between local people and immigrants.
Throughout the years, the Unkapanı flour mill has been represented with
chimneys and functioned as a landmark in the neighborhood. However, today, the
Unkapanı flour mill is missing its visual interpretation and affecting its visibility.
Because of that, re-interpretation of chimneys to (re)create the dialogue with
historic layers vertically, the sea visually, archaeological ruins, and the site as the
elevated promenade.
47
Figure 5: Site plan and functions
aer conservation and adaptive
reuse project (adapted from
Mehmet Alper’s plan for the mill)
Micro
According to interviews, the authors found that the local community is missing
its economic resilience aer the flour mill lost its function. To integrate locals into
new functions, a new circular business model is designed. With that business model,
an economic dialogue between Unkapanı and locals is planned to be established.
The circular business model aims to create collaborative ecosystems to generate
multidimensional positive outcomes (Girard, 2019):
− Keep the intrinsic value of the place
− Increase local community identity
− Provide job opportunities
The business model is inspired by sourdough bread-making. To make sour-
dough, only simple ingredients and time is needed. Aer sourdough is prepared, it
can be used for a limitless time by adding simple ingredients. With the revitalized
mill, they can create products that will give several opportunities and help cover
the expenses of the mill and society.
The fundamental way of creating a circular business model is closing the
loops and eliminating waste. With the bakery business model, the authors aim
to improve existing take-make-waste bakery loop and eliminate the wasting of
bread by using waste as a resource of flour (by special devices), yeast (by lactic
acid fermentation), and beer (by using as its waste situation) (lesaffre.com, 2021).
48 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Figure 6 (le): The linear busi-
ness model for making bread
(take-make-waste)
Figure 7 (right): The circular
business model for making
bread (closing the loops and
eliminating the waste)
Interventions
Within the project scope, the interventions will take place in different phases
(Figure 8).
First, the archeological ruins will be covered for their preservation with a
transparent material (Figure 8-b). Thanks to the transparent material, the dialogue
between the site and the archeological ruins will not be unlinked.
Second, to (re)establish the visual identity of the mill, chimneys will be re-in-
terpreted as towers (Figure 8-c). With that re-interpretation, the missing visual
connection will be created, and the landmark function of the mill will be regained.
The material to construct the towers will be corten steel.
Third, structural interventions will provide space for functions designated
at decisions (Figure 8-d). In addition to structural strengthening, new spaces will
be created to host different functions. The new space will be created reversibly.
In other words, the placed space can be easily removed by the site in the future.
Forth, to provide vertical and horizontal circulation in the site, a ramp will
be placed (Figure 8-e). The ramp will start from the inner court of the mill, cover
the ruin rectangularly, and reach towers. The ramp will complete the dialogue of
the inner and outer parts of the mill. It will make the archeological ruins visible,
and it will allow walkers to relate the site with the surroundings. Rustic steel will
be used in the ramp for vertical circulation.
Finally, the urban promenade will be created aer all of the interventions.
Figure 8: Intervention process -
from upper le to lower right: a,
b, c, d, e, f.
49
Figure 9: Representation of the
ramp adapted from Mehmet
Alper’s plan
Figure 10: A perspective view of
the site
50 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Industrial heritage buildings and areas are important cultural assets that need
to be preserved, which carry a message about the architectural language, technical
knowledge, production traces of the period in which they were built, as well as the
social, cultural, and economic structure of the period.
Today, this area with its heritage, which has lost almost all of its functions
and remained idle with the changing environmental conditions, social needs, and
technological developments, is to be protected by adapting it to today's conditions
with new functions.
Approaches to the protection of industrial heritage should be considered in
the context of the tangible and intangible values of the heritage. It should be taken
into account that this heritage, unlike other cultural assets, has technological and
production values, and projects should be developed to monitor the traditional
production process by preserving all the mechanisms of the heritage.
The proposed function was discussed with the title of "multicultural, tradi-
tional culinary, cooking, eating and sharing". The planned functions contain
and are distributed to open, semi-open, and closed areas, taking into account
the building and building remains in the area. It has been suggested that flour
production, cooking, and training should be given with traditional methods,
that the production areas will be open to the visitors and the production methods
should be monitored.
At the stage of developing a new function proposal to re-evaluate and protect
the area in today's conditions; it has been taken into account that the histor-
ical, cultural, and economic values of the Unkapanı district and the factory area,
including production and trade, are emphasized, and the existing mixed structure
of the area will have different functions related to each other.
Conclusion
Figure 11: A perspective view of
the site
51
Erkal, N. (2018). Grain Scale of Ooman Istanbul: Architecture of the Unkapanı
Landing Square. Journal of Urban History, 44(3), 351–381.
Girard, L. F. (2019). Implementing the Circular Economy: The Role of Cultural
Heritage as the Entry Point. Which Evaluation Approaches? Bolleino Del Centro
Calza Bini, 9, 245–277.
Hogg, M. A. (2006). Social Identity Theory. In P. J. Burke (Ed.), Contemporary
social psychological theories (pp. 111–136). Stanford University Press.
lesaffre.com. (2021). Towards a greater circular economy of bread.
Retrieved August 12, 2021 from https://www.lesaffre.com/trends-mag/
towards-a-greater-circular-economy-of-bread/
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of inter-group conflict.
In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of inter-group relations
(pp. 33–47). Brooks/Cole Publishing.
Reference List
Figure 13: A perspective view of
the site
Figure 12: A section view of the
site with materials
52 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Aim & Scope
Cem Balcan, Elif Leblebici, Nurşah Atamtürk, Tuğçe Türk, Yanming Wu
Figure 1: Mind map showing
some generic negative percep-
tions about post-industrial
areas
Figure 2: A view from the demol-
ished brick of the wall built
between İMÇ and Unkapanı site
The primary purpose of this study is to understand the influence of this
historic industrial site on urban context and community (Figure 1) and further
explore how to beer integrate the landmark industrial area in the central area
of the city into the sustainable urban development process. In this regard, the
research question is determined as: How can Unkapanı contribute to the local
community in sustainable ways? The proposal's vision statement aims to ensure
that this abandoned property has the potential to become a community place
for the neighborhoods while contributing to the social, cultural, and economic
dynamics in creative ways. The value of the Unkapanı flour mill has to be revealed
beyond its walls, metaphorically, as the project's title suggests, to dissolve the
boundaries and thresholds between the heritage and the local people, especially
the İMÇ community (Figure 2).
Unkapanı Beyond the Walls: Regeneration of Urban Space
Through the Recovery of Post-Industrial Places
53
The photo collage showing the courtyard between the walls (Figure 3), which
is both physically and ideologically located between Unkapanı and İMÇ Blocks,
represents the way the project foresees the potential of Unkapanı beyond the walls,
with the integration of local communities from different age groups and art collec-
tives. This visual is a representation of the urban catalyst effect of this re-functioning
proposal. In this study, it is proposed that the revitalization of Unkapanı can play
a catalyst role in the revitalization of the city, from the smallest unit to the whole.
Figure 3: The photo collage
showing the re-imagined
courtyard
Field Survey
For the study, qualitative research methodology is employed, and a case study
is chosen as a research method. In this regard, semi-structured interviews and face-
to-face field surveys are conducted with the locals of the Unkapanı neighborhood
for four days in November 2021, with a snowball method to understand the system
of the Unkapanı region by a neuro-urbanism approach.
In the first part of the five-part survey, demographic data was gathered to figure
out the general profile of local people and their socio-economic structure (Figure
4). Looking at the histogram of the age of 36 interviewees, the youngest being 17
and the eldest 73 years old, the mean age is 40.86. Of the 36 interviewees, 10 are
women, 24 are married with at least one child. Briefly, participants are occupied in
the İMÇ music industry, local shops, or students, homemakers, and unemployed.
The second part is designed to determine the flow of people in the area and their
reason for being in the Unkapanı region.
54 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Figure 4: Graphs showing demo-
graphical data and participants’
answers for being Unkapanı
The third part is about dimensions of belonging, which questions the pres-
ence of binding economic activity, space/midpoint/landmark of aaching, social
rituals, and traditions (Figure 5). It was concluded that women and men gather
in isolation from each other in the region, generally in closed areas and private
properties. Also, it can be said that people who work here have social aachment
among themselves but do not have any place to come together. As a result of this
section, it has been determined that there is a serious need for a meeting and
socializing area in the area.
Figure 5: Graphs showing
dimensions of belonging
55
The fourth part measures the level of awareness, including their perceptions,
feelings, and knowledge about both the historical and contemporary value of
Unkapanı Flour Mill (Figure 6). Users were asked to evaluate the old Unkapanı
flour mill buildings, with the help of a 5- point scale placed between adjective
pairs that were positive or negative. Only 15 out of 36 people stated that they had
an idea about Unkapanı's past. Only 6 of them knew the correct function of the
remains in Unkapanı.
Figure 6: Graphs showing the
level of awareness
Finally, the fih section of the questionnaire requests users' function sugges-
tions and opinions in case of re-functioning old mill buildings (Figure 7). A
respectable number of locals expressed their demand for the restoration and reuse
of building remains as a kind of cultural facilities (museum, concert hall, theater,
art galleries, etc.) that will create economic vitality and small shopping units
(marketplace coffeehouses).
Figure 7a: Graphs showing re-
functioning areas
56 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Figure 7b: Graphs showing re-
functioning areas
Design Strategy: Re-functioning Proposal for Unkapanı Mill
Figure 8: Re-functioning
proposal on the master plan for
Unkapanı Flour Mill
Old Cinema Building, New Videotheque
The Memory Museum
A building with a separate entrance was used as a cinema building in its original
state (Figure 8). Compared to the other buildings in the mill complex, the cinema
building, having a triangular pediment, moldings, and reliefs, has a rather ornate
facade. In the re-functioning plan, it is proposed to use this building as a video-
theque. This function has been provided to host film and documentary screenings
to showcase the history and archives of Unkapanı, as well as art installations.
The display function is located in the memory museum, which refers to the
historical accumulation of the area, and also some parts of it host some temporary
art exhibitions. It was noticed in the survey results that even the people living near
this area have no idea or curiosity about the function and history of Unkapanı. One
57
Figure 9: Longitudinal section
showing the relation between
the historic buildings, the ramp,
and the courtyard
The Courtyard as a Community Space
of the main goals of creating a memory museum is to eliminate the disinformations
and establish a direct link with Unkapanı's historical and spatial memory, see its
photos from old times, and create new memories on them. Oral, graphical, and
theatrical representations of the former buildings and functions can be seen to
transfer the memory of the place and increase a sense of belonging and awareness
about the area, as it is planned for Unkapanı Memory Museum. Additionally, the
old chimneys of the factory are proposed to be reconstructed in order to revive
the symbolic memory of Unkapanı. As it is visible from the old archival visuals
of Haliç, including the silhouee of Unkapanı, the chimney was the most visible
component of the factory.
In the courtyard, there is a proposal of a ramp coming from the memory
museum and ending at the courtyard as an observation deck where one can perceive
the whole area and the ambiance. While providing a different flow route, this ramp
allows experiencing the field from different levels. In addition to adding a new
architectural layer and increasing social integration there, another purpose of the
ramp and this multi-purpose courtyard is to increase community engagement.
Figure 10: Photo collage
showing the ramp around the
archaeological site
58 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Figure 11: Pedestrian streamline
diagram
Contextual Relation between Unkapanı and İMÇ
Having presented the design ideas for the central courtyard and ramp, Figure
11 shows the strategy for the pedestrian streamlines. The exhibition and observation
axis created by the ramp comes from the museum and reaches the courtyard. The
commercial axis passes by the local shops and cafes. Lastly, the main pedestrian
axis creates an urban corridor between Unkapanı and the rest of the neighborhood.
To explain its contextual relationship with İMÇ, it can be said that Unkapanı
is located in a potential urban sub-center, or at strategic points close to the city
center, supported by existing infrastructure, and dependent on highly accessible
transportation systems. To use its urban potentials and locational advantages, an
axis passing through the site and reaching to İMÇ is proposed (Figure 12).
This axis works as an urban corridor and a place for public interaction.
Performing arts, music, film, video, and photography industry coordinated with
İMÇ, handicras, and gastronomy workshops are some functions recommended
in the design field. It is intended that İMÇ will also profit from this urban recre-
ation and achieve economic revival. Heritage-led regeneration positively affects
the neighborhood and broader markets where a substantially new economic base
has been necessary.
59
Figure 12: Photo collage
showing the main pedestrian
axis as an urban corridor
Intervention Methods, Construction Techniques, and Materials
Original masonry walls of the mill are planned to be preserved and consol-
idated. Integration with original buildings is proposed only with contemporary
construction techniques and materials. Thus, original parts of the mill and new
additions can be distinguished. Besides, new floors, mezzanines, eaves, and ramps
are integrated into the existing walls of the mill to provide a rich spatial experience
for visitors and users. New floors are constructed with steel structures by avoiding
touching the original masonry walls. It is also possible to create an entrance by
using the remaining original walls and building new eaves. The buildings are
covered with a steel-structured and metal-covered roof. As an integrated part, the
new roof is distinguished from the original structure by using glass and any other
contrast surface material.
Conclusion
Through the analysis of theoretical and practical data, this re-functioning
proposal raises the issue of emotional links with the built environment and the
feeling of genius loci, contributing towards the identity of Unkapanı. The results
show that since the birth of the Unkapanı Mill factory, productivity and the
exchange culture has had a significant impact on the development and trans-
formation of industry. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that the gradual disap-
pearance of various facets of the cultural heritage is a severe blow to the “spirit of
place” and the coherent atmosphere of urban environments. In the light of these,
this re-functioning proposal aims to increase the sustainable productivity in this
region in terms of economic, social, and cultural aspects.
60 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Aybüke Sa, Yasemin Çakır, Meriç Altıntaş Kaptan, Merve Torlak,
Nazlı Arslan, Sena Kayasü, Taiwo Samuel Orisade
Guerilla Urbanism
In a contemporary context, the problems associated with Unkapanı Flour
Mill can be viewed with three different lenses: socioeconomic, political, and
physical/environmental problems that lead to lack of security, social exclusion,
abandonment, building deterioration, poorly planned urban areas, and climate
change-related problems. As a result, unauthorized, unplanned, and ostensibly
unwanted activities have long appropriated the Unkapanı Flour Mill in ways that
makes the site invisible, forgoen, and imprisoned.
However, a conscious effort to meticulously reveal and restore the state of
the Unkapanı Flour Mill is requisite. To do this, we need a toolbox that includes
commemorative, historical, symbolic, architectural values as well as others. There
is a need to protect, maintain and stabilize the existing materials, form and integ-
rity of the Unkapanı Flour Mill. Guerrilla urbanism was chosen as a conceptual
framework to sustainably achieve these aims as well as address the ills associated
with the site.
Guerrilla urbanism, also known as tactical urbanism, is a boom-up model
that promotes an alternative strategy for balancing public-private partnerships.
This concept employs minimal or scalable intervention as a means for large-scale
or long-term transformation. Tactical urbanism is all about action characterized
by temporality or adaptable intervention, informality, urban acupuncture, urban
prototyping, low-cost and high impact.
Cities around the world are creating adaptable, short-term industrial heritage
projects to meet long-term goals and creating a paradigm shi in the way commu-
nities think about heritage reuse. Under the umbrella of guerrilla urbanism, our
approach is a four-stage process: analysis (site conditions and interviews), raising
awareness, fostering a state of belonging, and creating the conditions for the
sustainable reuse of the building through a participatory design process.
Vision
Figure 1: View of İMÇ from
Unkapanı Flour Mill
Unkapanı Flour Mill:
An Urban Catalyzer
61
Material Deterioration Analysis
Interviews
The mill building which used to be the main facility of the complex does not
exist today; it was demolished during the construction of İMÇ blocks. The furnace
building, which was located in the middle of the complex at the time it was built,
was also subjected to significant losses such as loss of volumes, walls, floors, and
roof. Today only several walls of the furnace are standing. The warehouse building,
of which only the walls are standing today, was a 2-storey structure. Some signifi-
cant losses in regards to that include loss of floors and roof. The housing building,
a 3-storey building located in the north of the site, has lost a façade during the
construction of İMÇ blocks. The floor of the service building and some of its walls/
facades have been lost along with window and door profiles. The plaster surfaces/
facade of the cinema building has been damaged, and similarly, the door and
window profiles have been lost.
Other than volume and building element-related losses, the remains of the
complex had also faced other deteriorations as well. At several points at the site,
inappropriate interventions have been observed such as walls built and doors to
block trespassing. Furthermore, decay caused by uncontrolled vegetation and
higher plants growing at various areas within the site were noticed.
Figure 2: Unkapanı Flour Mill
deteriorations in elevation
(Modified from Alper, 2021)
Following the problem definition and site analysis, it was necessary to under-
stand what various groups within the community know about and expect from the
site. Unstructured interviews were carried out as a precursor to the participatory
design process to inform initial design ideas. The various groups identified in the
surrounding community were residents, tradesmen (both from the neighbour-
hood and İMÇ), and the muhtar. The tradesmen from the neighbourhood and the
residents were interviewed on 23 October 2021. They stated that four or five years
ago, the site of the flour mill and the neighbourhood, in general, was not secure.
Today, the service sector (including hotels, restaurants etc.) are taking the place of
small-scale industry and ateliers, which makes the neighbourhood more inviting.
The tradesmen from İMÇ expressed that the building is very self-sufficient, they
have very lile contact with the neighbourhood, and they think the area is uncanny,
weird, and unsafe.
The interview with the muhtar, Hüseyin Öztürk, took place on 5 November
2021. He noted that security issues are rampant in the flour mill’s site, even aer
it was enclosed with concrete walls. He also stated that the neighbourhood was
very different before the food market (“hal”) moved away in 1986; the white-collar
62 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
and blue-collar employees of the market mostly lived in the area and formed
the socio-cultural backbone of the neighbourhood. Aer the market closed, the
neighbourhood lost much of its long-time population and the void was filled with
seasonal migrants or domestic migrants fleeing from terrorism in eastern Türkiye.
Öztürk touched on the sense of temporariness in the neighbourhood. Even
during the days of the flour mill, most of the workers were seasonal and lived in
temporary housing. The muhtar stated that the temporariness is infused into the
area’s culture and that the fact that two of its streets are named Atlamataşı (“step-
ping stone”) and Yenihayat (“new life”) reflects that most residents view the area
as a stepping stone. At the last election, there were approximately 220 registered
voters (permanent residents) in the neighbourhood, while an estimated 3000-4000
people are unregistered and temporary.
Although the temporariness is etched into the neighbourhood’s fabric, it has
increased since the end of the food market, and it severely hurts the area’s potential
because most residents are not interested in its future. Öztürk noted that the area
has become a backyard for the more touristic Eminönü district and experiences
vehicular/parking overload and excess garbage issues due to this situation. However,
Eminönü’s proximity has been helpful in one aspect: tradesmen from the Egyptian
Bazaar in Eminönü helped fund the soup kitchen that Unkapanı’s residents started
on their own, which continued for more than a year until the Covid-19 pandemic.
Özdemir further stated that the neighbourhood does not require more green
areas or playgrounds. There are no children and the green areas of the nearby
mosques meet the residents’ needs. He expressed that the neighbourhood’s main
need was planned, possibly multi-storey car parks to alleviate the parking situation
that currently obstructs access to the shores of the Golden Horn. He also mentioned
summer cinemas and singers’ performances (from the İMÇ) as a pleasant, collective
memory of the past.
Figure 3: Conceptual collage
of uses (2021, Photo modified
from NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Archive)
63
Participatory Design Process
The data collected from the site analysis and oral research is the main source
for defining the interventions on site. To open the site to pedestrian traffic, the
first step was tearing down the wall facing İMÇ Block 6 and regaining contact
with a modern temporal layer in the history of the site. By blocking traffic from
Atlamataşı Street, the site became a pedestrian zone. Then, a route with the traces
on the ground that references the flour coming from the port and being processed
and stored is designed in the courtyard. The original flour storage area turned into
an open exhibition informing the visitors about the timeline of the site. In this
scenario, the site is being used as a recreational area and some small-scale shops
and the community centre are introduced to the site more permanently. Some
events and weekly bazaars are more than welcome to create funds for the care of
the site. The bazaar is also a reference to the memory of the food market that was
in the area between the 1940s and 1980s.
Figure 4 shows how the proposed temporary scenario works on the plan.
Firstly, the same materials, wood and polycarbonate, are decided to be used for
Figure 4: Proposed site plan
64 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
everything that is introduced to the site so that all the interventions would have
the same distinguishable language. Some openings are closed with a wooden roof
in need of closed spaces like small shops and storage for the events. The shops
facing Unkapanı Street would service both the street and the courtyard to have a
connection with the surrounding area as well.
In this plan, the traces on the ground visit the exhibition area explaining the
history of the site. However, the archaeological remains are covered and protected
with glass without further excavations. The original cinema building is planned
to serve as a cinema in the new function as well. Also, a new temporary stage area
is defined for contemporary events.
The areas around the original chimney restored as the community centre
and cafeteria, are planned to be the heart of the site. The new community centre is
designed as a flexible meeting area (Figure 5). A mezzanine floor is introduced to
create more space inside, but this intervention is reversible and does not damage
the original feeling of the interior. The area below the chimney on the plan is
proposed to be covered with a wooden roof and serve as a cafe to the inner courtyard.
Figure 5: Proposed design for the
community center and cafeteria
65
Figure 7: Proposed design for the
open-air exhibition space
Figure 6: Proposed design
for service spaces
The building in Figure 6 is chosen as the service building because it is from
a later period and has a lot of its original material remaining. According to the
proposal, the bathrooms, study rooms and some technical spaces are underneath
this building's completed roof.
66 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Figure 8: Revitalized chimney
and courtyard
In the context of the scenario, it is important to separate the periods from
each other and to reflect the architectural values of the past with modern tech
-
nology. For this reason, it is aimed that the disappearing structural elements can
be abstracted and added to the spirit of the space. In this sense, a new approach
has been developed that reflects the volumetric proportions of the collapsed
chimney and its modern effects on the silhouee are imagined. The use of timber
and polycarbonate in the courtyard, as in the chimney, not only reflects today’s
technologies but also reveals the difference of the periods by creating a contrast
with the masonry buildings. (Figures 8 and 9)
67
Aspirations for the Future
The inactive spaces around the project area could be an asset rather than a
handicap to determine the future of this neighborhood. The collapsed buildings
and inactive lots currently create security and safety issues. Further stages of a
participatory design process may consider that drawing creative industries into
these lots and reignite the potential of the neighborhood (Figure 10). Commercial
buildings around the Unkapanı Flour Mill outnumber residential structures and
there is a very small population of permanent residents, so this solution may boost
economic and social sustainability with lile danger of gentrification.
In conclusion, this study seeks to transform the Unkapanı Flour Mill through
a participatory design process to reveal the importance of industrial heritage
to communities and livelihoods. Within the new industrial heritage paradigm,
guerrilla urbanism is a pragmatic and a useful tool to deliver Unkapanı Flour Mill
in the full richness of its contemporary interpretation; it may also help to rebuild
a permanent population and a sense of belonging that was found to be missing.
Industrial heritage sites require rethinking areas in the context of urban change
because they have tremendous socio-economic potential. However, it is important
to note that heritage is a product of conservation, and conservation is a key act that
leads to the deliberate creation of heritage.
Figure 9: Revitalized chimney
and courtyard
68 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
69
Reflections on
Project Proposals
70 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Organized by NIT in collaboration with the
Netherlands Consulate-General in Istanbul as part
of the Liveable Cities program and the Centre for
Global Heritage and Development of Leiden, Del
and Erasmus Universities in 2021, the NIT Urban
Heritage Lab: “Industrial Heritage for Sustainable
Cities” opened up new perspectives for heritage
experts and researchers in terms of informal educa-
tion as well as administrations and communities in
terms of increasing the quality of sustainable urban
life. 26 students aending the program, presented
4 different group projects about the old Unkapanı
Flour Mill at the end. This is a summary evaluation
of the final projects.
“Unkapanı Community Garden” focuses on an
“integrated” solution, bringing together all stake-
holders, in terms of a minimal intervention to the
site with environment-friendly proposals. The
multi-purpose building and the memory space /
museum are intended as an educational outreach for
the people living in the area and visitors through an
experiential learning approach. The negative points
could be the design of the steel trusses, which are
similar to historic forms, which could be confusing,
and the use of so capping, which, although good at
non-urban sites, is not appropriate for dense urban
areas. The design of the multi-purpose building,
which transforms the open space into usable space
without changing its composition, and the physical
and social integration with the surrounding urban
areas and communities, are all positive points. The
use of the transformed space for wheat processing
and baking workshops, inspired by the original
function of the mill and supporting local businesses,
storm/rain water collection and management for
the community garden and the market place would
create social urban aractions. The community
involvement and visitor experience are designed
with a plan to integrate all stakeholders, including
the community, NGOs and local administrations.
“Adaptive Transformation of the Mill through
Urban Promenade: Monologue, Dialogue, Travel-
ogue” focuses on establishing a previously non-ex-
isting physical and social dialogue through the
creation of a sustainable and inclusive community
around the mill. This approach is inspired by the
“social identity” theory, developed by Tajfel and
Turner in 1979. The current disconnected “mono-
logue” of the site is proposed to be developed into an
urban “dialogue” through the creation of an indus-
trial heritage route in Istanbul, and a local “dialogue”
around a “cultural bakery”, which ser ves metaphori-
cally, and the tangible and intangible heritage of the
culture of food, provision, production, distribution,
and consumption, which the group defines as one of
the social identities of the community and proposing
a circular process of “sourdough bread making”.
Although not as organized as in the first proposal,
the identity and community development ideas,
including various urban actors and stakeholders is
positive. For this purpose, the proposal makes use
of the existing structures through consolidation
and minimal intervention while adding an “urban
promenade” with a re-interpreted reconstruction of
the two mill towers as urban landmarks. Reversibility
is an important factor in the interventions and the
new additions utilize rustic steel and corten sheets to
be easily distinguished from the authentic materials.
“Unkapanı Beyond the Walls” focuses on the
inherent value of the site as a post-industrial place
to be transformed into a new urban sub-centre. A
limited survey carried out in the area shows a lack
of information and awareness about the site and
A Multidisciplinary Studio on the Sustainability of
Urban Industrial Heritage
Nilüfer Baturayoğlu Yöney
University of Central Florida
71
a generally negative public view. The new urban
sub-centre is envisioned as a dynamic and creative
common place for Unkapanı communities. The
urban corridor or axis, proposed between the old
movie theatre and İMÇ, along the south border of
the site, helps the integration of the area with its
surroundings, providing an alternative pedestrian
route through the event spaces and shops. The
courtyard is le open with the addition of a ramp,
identified as a “memory route” while the existing
spaces are consolidated and reused. The interven
-
tions do not change the general appearance of the
buildings but create new interior spaces with upper
floors. These spaces will house a series of functions
designed around cultural and creative industries
both social and commercial. The architectural ideas
in this proposal are beer developed in compar-
ison to the other ones while the use definitions are
vaguer except for the commercial spaces. Community
building social and cultural functions are not clearly
defined and environmental sustainability issues are
not addressed.
“Urban catalyser” focuses on a citizen-led, short-
term, low-cost and adaptable approach, inspired by
the idea of “guerrilla” or tactical urbanism, defined
by Lydon and Garcia in 2015. The four senses of this
system are identified as downwards/redistribution,
forwards/sustainability, upwards/participation
and backwards/memory. The identified problems
of safety, temporariness and lack of green areas
are addressed and the community involvement is
achieved through a series of events, including infor-
mation meetings, interviews, flyers, chalkboards
and open-air movies. The resulting interventions
and aspirations are proposed as a two-stage partici-
patory design process (PDP). PDP1 or interventions
include consolidation of the existing buildings and
the archaeological site, re-igniting identity through
the reconstruction of the two mill chimneys, and
temporary functions such as an open weekly bazaar,
community centre and entertainment events. The
open space is only landscaped. PDP2 or aspirations
propose to re-activate other unused spaces in the
urban environment around the site for a wider audi-
ence. Although this boom-up approach has its
advantages, the temporary nature of stakeholder
involvement and interventions may lead to a second
abandonment in the long run if this process is not
somehow directed.
In general, these proposals show us, heritage
professionals, the value of informal education and
multi-disciplinary approaches. Each proposal has its
own merits and likely to succeed at different levels,
if applied, despite their shortcomings at other levels.
Their shared points in raising awareness, creating
communities and formulating stakeholder involve-
ment are all necessary for a successful urban inter-
vention. Similarly, their suggestions for minimal and
reversible interventions while creating urban activity
centres and reconstructing landmarks through envi-
ronmentally sustainable approaches, are essential for
physical and social visibility. It would be wonderful
to see the eventual application of a synthesis of these
proposals at the Unkapanı Mill in the near future in
order to provide a good-practice example for a more
sustainable Istanbul.
72 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
To be a student of heritage in contemporary
times is necessarily to engage with the conflicts of
an unclear and changing present, which bears the
residues of past ways of life. Given the thoughtful-
ness and level of analysis that its complexity deserves,
heritage goes beyond many of the phenomena associ-
ated with the term. Old buildings, musealized objects,
and statues point to some of the most classically-con-
ceived heritage items, but these alone can’t get to the
heart of how heritage is experienced for many people
in their day-to-day lives. Heritage may, for many, be
something much less grandiose, and indeed possibly
much less noticeable. It may be emotional, it may be
messy, it may be fractious.
The complex of the former Unkapanı Flour Mill,
in Istanbul, provides a good example of how the
different tensions in heritage sites can nest within
and alongside each other. Here, the past ruptures
into the present, and disturbs plans for the future.
The students partaking in the NIT Urban Heritage
Lab: Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities course
(2021), were, as a general indicator, students of archi-
tecture and a range of other disciplines, all of which
served as useful for rendering meaning onto heri-
tage spaces. In doing so, the groups demonstrate an
instinctive ability to embed their projects, and their
plans for the future with the kind of thoughtfulness
needed to expose these adjacent tensions. This expo-
sure presents opportunities for designing interven-
tions and/or making transitions to sustainable cities,
without neglecting the conflicting perceptions, and
the complex memories of former industrial spaces.
Heritage work is oen a balancing act between
what from the past is allowed to remain present in
both physical and immaterial forms, and what is
made to fall silent, be forgoen, or be unseen. Indus
-
trial sites — and the heritageization of them — oen
finds the complex, multi-layered stories of labor,
class, and production smoothed over in favor of the
retention of an industrial aesthetic utilized for other
— oen gentrifying — means (High, 2018). Across
each of the group’s contributions during the Urban
Heritage Lab project however, the capacity for and
intention of architectural forms to make visible the
memorial fabric of the Unkapanı Flour Mill is real-
ized in strikingly original ways. The fourth group’s
Urban Catalyzer project makes this an explicit goal,
seeking to address the ‘forgoen, imprisoned, and
invisible’ past of Unkapanı.
That such memories have become absent in
these diffuse ways speaks to the challenge facing the
architectural and urban planning designs aiming to
repurpose Unkapanı. Each group used the Emotion
Networking technique, co-developed between the
Amsterdam heritage research institutions Imagine
IC and the Reinwardt Academy, to both establish a
dialogue between the many different populations
relevant to the mill and its surroundings, and bring
to the surface aspects of its history that may be
painful or unnoticed. Following initial distance and
onsite training, the student groups implemented the
methods themselves in their projects. In doing so,
the past is able to be envisaged as something active,
that moves between people in their day-to-day life,
and enables connections with other communities
who may have very different experiences of what
Unkapanı and the nearby İMÇ complex means to
them.
Group one’s Unkapanı Community Garden
design incorporates a marketplace, offering
economic opportunities alongside a place to meet
and increase social cohesion. This space — and the
integrative physical space should be considered
vital here — is shown as particularly important
Recovering Unkapanı for a Different Future
Harry Reddick
Cultural Heritage Research Group, Reinwardt Academy
73
in integrating the immigrant population with the
pre-existing community around the mill. Proposed
educational workshops focusing on the history of
the area, and the community, augment this further.
In having a focus on the social cohesion of the
immigrant and more established populations of the
area, group one wasn’t alone. Group four’s co-de-
signed approach, and its architectural emphasis
of temporary interventions of a vernacular nature,
implements a communal and communicative space
for increasing a sense of belonging. This aims to
bring into contact the memories of different groups,
in a manner reminiscent of Michael Rothberg’s
multidirectional memory concept (Rothberg, 2009).
On a broader level however, this speaks to the way in
which issues of heritage are constant recalibrations,
a continual reckoning of stability amongst change
and nonlinearity, which must remain in the space
of discussion.
This theme was prevalent in every group’s contri-
bution, with various communicative approaches
being utilized in order to continually engage with the
potential conflict arising from this ongoing discus-
sion. Group three’s project, Unkapanı Beyond the
Walls, conducted extensive demographic analysis
and surveying, which meant receiving explicitly
dissenting opinions about the history of Unkapanı,
and how feasible (or not) it was to feel a sense of
belonging there. Again, communication (and the
capacity for it) is key here. Some of the most common
responses from those surveyed deemed Unkapanı
to be ‘ugly, dangerous, complicated, useless’, and —
perhaps most interestingly — ‘silent’. What kind of
things might Unkapanı say, if it was granted a voice,
and how urgent would those uerances be? What
kind of further disturbances to the idea that people
mentally hold of the flour mill area might arise from
a stronger communication between space, time, and
inhabitants? A collective understanding of merging
pasts and futures that is not necessarily a consensus,
but is at least a dialogue with room for uncertainty,
is surely preferable to a prescribed narrative that is
‘safe’ and generalized (see: Wollentz et al., 2020). By
‘transferring the experience of the factory to today’s
users’ within the refunctioning idea of the ‘memory
museum’, group three indicate the possibility for
archeological and architectural practice to have
memorial or identity aspects embedded within it,
just as occurs unintentionally when industrial places
are both literally and metaphorically stained by their
histories. Memory, identity, and architectural prac-
tice can thereby each be in dialogue, within these
reconceptualizations of Unkapanı.
The notion of the past both being part of plans
for the future, and having a dialogue with it, was
further explored within the Monologue, Dialogue,
Travelogue project of group two. Again indicating
how meaningfully multidisciplinary the course
was overall, the group grounded their work in the
notion of Social Identity Theory (SIT). A psycholog-
ical theory first established by Henri Tajfel and John
Turner in 1972, SIT argues that individuals conceptu-
alize themselves in terms of groups, via identifying
as group members, in order to engender (positive)
self-conceptions. Aiming to work with (and indeed
work through) the identities that the inhabitants of
Unkapanı maintain today, participants were encour-
aged to engage with the history of the site, and come
to reconsider their position in the wider social fabric
based on the output of this former industrial site:
food, or — more specifically — bread.
The group argues that the procuring, prepa-
ration, and consumption of food is a social and
communicative process, thus making bread, and
74 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
its production here, part of the social identity of
those who previously worked and ate at or around
Unkapanı. However, surveying showed that the
current inhabitants or users of the site were largely
unaware of its history, and none were aware of the
meaning behind the name. As a result, a design
with a variety of links between food practices and
phenomena through past, present, and future was
drawn up. Bakeries and culinary workshops; a
cultural heritage traveling route beyond Unkapanı’s
walls including three other (former) mills in the area;
even a business model inspired by the process of
sourdough bread-making: each of these were worked
into the design, bringing the past craspeople of
Unkapanı, and their baking skill, into contact with
the present day, and helping to co-shape the narrative,
and the identity, of the area in the future.1
Working with the heritage of a place oen means
the production of difficult questions that demand
asking but do not necessarily have a coherent answer
(see: Diez, 2019).2 Group two touch upon one of their
own when they say that locals today ‘aren’t aware of
the real story behind the area.’ But what is the ‘real’
story? How much can any one story claim to be the
‘real’ story? And which other stories are suppressed
in the reification of the ‘real’ story? Why — as one
invigilator of the presentation session put it —
should the past maer at all? Such questions point
less towards a weakness in the group’s methodology,
but rather towards the fact that solid, pragmatic
heritage work, as has been embedded into the design
of each group here, encourages a robust criticality
which is rarely seled. It is this critical approach
which demonstrates how heritage, across the spec-
trum of the tangible and the intangible manifesta-
tions, can engage with the issues that are close to
the individual lives of people who have some kind
of relationship with Unkapanı.
What if we zoomed out a lile however, and put
some distance between ourselves and Unkapanı’s
inhabitants and workers? The projects created here
demonstrate that the relevance of the past persists
even in the face of wider societal — even global
— issues, when applying the right analytical lens.
Even though designs relating to Unkapanı are
understandably centered around the local context,
the plans made show how reuse of industrial space
could potentially present microcosmic solutions
addressing the climate crisis. Adaptive reuse of
(post-)industrial spaces is nothing new: striking
examples can be found in Amsterdam, Silesian
Voivodeship, Belgrade, and beyond, wherein the
facades of former industrial spaces are retained
for a repurposing relevant to contemporary needs
(Barba Lata & Duineveld, 2019; Szromek et al., 2021;
Nikolić et al., 2020). The best examples of this thread
historical or memorializing insights through the
forward-facing momentum of sustainability prac
-
tices. Group one, for example, combines a ‘memory
museum’ (situated in the former grain storage of the
mill) with adaptive water management techniques
and heat-resistant building materials. Group two,
meanwhile, bases its bread-based reinterpretation
of the space around a system of circularity, mini-
mizing environmental impacts from the process of
sourcing, transport, production, consumption, and
waste. These examples show the potential for the
sunken material fabric of Unkapanı to be reused in
a way that embeds progressive sustainability prac-
tices addressing climate problems. Further, they
encourage an experimentation in the notion of
what constitutes a museum or musealized space,
embedding with these new forms a criticality that
can address the urgency of climate change (see:
75
heritage-centered architectural and programmatic
redesign of industrial spaces could be a catalyst for
positive social change.
Reference List
Barba Lata, I., & Duineveld, M. (2019). A harbour
on land: De Ceuvel’s topologies of creative reuse. Envi-
ronment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 51(8), 1758–
1774. hps://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19860540
Diez, T. (2019). Part B: New CENTralities in
INdustrial areas as engines for inNOvation and urban
transformation. Centrinno, CE-SC5-20.
Harrison, R., & Sterling, C. (2021). Reimagining
Museums for Climate Action, Glasgow Science Centre.
High, S. (2018, February 25). Industrial Heri-
tage as Vehicle for Gentrification. National Council on
Public History Blog. hps://ncph.org/history-at-work/
industrial-heritage-as-agent-of-gentrification/
Nikolić, M., Drobnjak, B., & Kuletin Ćulafić, I.
(2020). The Possibilities of Preservation, Regen-
eration and Presentation of Industrial Heritage:
The Case of Old Mint “A.D.” on Belgrade Riverfront.
Sustainability, 12(13), 5264. hps://doi.org/10.3390/
su12135264
Reddick, H. (2022, February 25).
Different Values in and of Industrial Space
CENTRINNO.eu blog. https://centrinno.eu/blog/
different-values-in-and-of-industrial-space/
Rothberg, M. (2009). Multidirectional Memory:
Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization.
Stanford University Press.
Smith, L. (2006). Uses of Heritage. Routledge.
Szromek, A. R., Herman, K., & Naramski, M.
(2021). Sustainable development of industrial
heritage tourism – A case study of the Industrial
Harrison & Sterling, 2021).
The need for a continual critical reappraisal of
the ways heritage is understood, manifested, and
used, speaks to an aempt to inject into the idea
of heritage a values-based response to the myriad
problems facing myriad societies today. The heritage
landscape is always built — whether consciously
or unconsciously — on certain values. Laurajane
Smith’s notion of the Authorized Heritage Discourse
(AHD) is one of the most foundational critiques of
the types of values underpinning heritage and its
various manifestations. Specifically, the AHD sees
certain (generally mainstream and well-known)
heritage items as promoting certain nationalistic
values which — sometimes violently — silence and
homogenise, rather than open up space for dialogue
and debate (Smith, 2006). Industrial heritage itself,
oen (but not always) outside of the AHD, also can
be problematised by characterizing it as a history
not of admirable work and productivity, but as based
on the values of extractivism (of non-replenishable
resources) and exploitation (of vulnerable laborers)
(see: Reddick, 2022). Values that, in short, one should
be very wary of.
Using different values as a basis for under-
standing heritage and its processes opens up possibil-
ities for it to work in more sustainable and dialogical
ways. Values of openness, creativity, and curiosity are
for example some of the values underlying each of the
four group’s approaches to the Unkapanı mill. The
projects constructed from such approaches accord-
ingly transmit these values to the potential users
and participants in the ongoing process of defining
and developing what the mill is and does. That these
potential future redevelopments seem set to address
the most vital issues relevant to both Unkapanı and
the wider context it exists within, indicates that a
76 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
Monuments Route in Poland. Tourism Management, 83,
1–17. hps://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104252
Wollentz, G., May, S., Holtorf, C., & Högberg,
A. (2020). Toxic Heritage: Uncertain and Unsafe. In
R. Harrison, C. DeSilvey, C. Holtorf, S. Macdonald,
N. Bartolini, E. Breithoff, H. Fredheim, A. Lyons, S.
May, J. Morgan, & S. Penrose (Eds.), Heritage Futures:
Comparative Approaches to Natural and Cultural Heritage
Practices (pp. 294–312). UCL Press.
Endnotes
1
As will be familiar to many jaded millennials
who took up sourdough baking during the sudden
months inside during the pandemic, sourdough
requires the long-term, regular feeding of an active
starter that becomes the basis of each loaf.
2
The approaching of potentially-difficult heri-
tage questions using Emotion Networking is also part
of the methodology of the CENTRINNO project, in
which Imagine IC and the Reinwardt Academy are
also partners. See: Tomas Diez, ‘Part B: New CENTral-
ities in INdustrial areas as engines for inNOvation
and urban transformation’, Centrinno, CE-SC5-20,
(2019).
77
The Unkapani Flour Mill in the urban context
Source: Mehmet Alper Archive
The Unkapani Flour Mill in the urban context
Source: Mehmet Alper Archive
78 NIT Urban Heritage Lab
79
Drone image of the mill
Source: Mehmet Alper Archive
