On the 6th of February, Turkey woke up to horrific earthquakes.
Two massive earthquakes have shaken up ten provinces in south-eastern Turkey. Thousands of people have lost their lives under the rubble. After these quakes, planning cities became an even more debated issue. On the other hand, I believe there is another important issue that I believe must be addressed: a new ontology of the city.
The city has been regarded as the engine of economic development. Factories have been established and people migrated to the urban areas in the hopes of welfare, jobs, and urban culture. Turkey's last half-century was a period of liberalization of the free market and liberal ideas. Privatization of public investments and expansion of the private market induced massive growth and over-concentration of urban areas. Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara became more populous as internal migration accelerated due to a paradigm shift in the economy nationwide. Agriculture was replaced by the service and industrial sectors as it yields higher profits.
Everyone is familiar with the simple supply and demand relationship in the economy. If the supply of a certain property increases in the market, its price decreases. Similarly, if the demand for a certain property increases, then its price also increases in the market. Appealing to people from rural areas to urban areas led to an increase in the demand for the commodities and services which are produced in cities. Real estate and housing services have been demanded more as cities became more populous. Turkey's industrialization history led certain cities to grow asymmetrically. There can hardly refer concise urban planning that takes into consideration of population, infrastructure, and other factors.
Fast-growing cities led to squatter housing in new residential areas as people migrate to newly emerging industrial cities. Network migration helped to ease the costs of migration and adaptation to the new lifestyle. The government was insufficient to address the problems that emerged as a result of over-urbanization. Indeed, over-urbanization was a real challenge that impeded qualified infrastructure, city planning, and housing material. Due to the lacking of sufficient housing materials and effective demand for strong housing materials, squatter housing or building new apartment blocks was completed by disregarding contemporary principles of civil engineering and material knowledge.
Such urbanization led cities highly vulnerable to natural catastrophes as their capacity to resist natural catastrophes is insufficient due to the reasons counted above.