The quest for urban identity in the changing context of the city - Northern Cyprus

Abstract

Identity is one of the essential goals for the future of a good environment. People should feel that some part of the environment belongs to them, individually and collectively, some part for which they care and are responsible, whether they own it or not. At the urban level, the environment should be such that it encourages people to express themselves and to become involved. Considering older cities in general, it is agreed by many theorists that the organizing elements of the city are the districts and the public domain, the street and the square. However, this acknowledgement is in opposition to important trends in contemporary city planning. New urban developments, owing to local economic politics, is usually oriented towards creating a monotonous and standard image. Consequently, buildings are designed with little concern for their relationship to each other or for the overall effect of the city. Spaces left between them have become undefined, undesirable, useless and unliveable. To change this, we must develop a sensitivity to public spaces; not only in central civic and business districts, but also, and most importantly, in urban and peri-urban quarters, where the spaces between are becoming more important as densities increase. This study will search for urban identity through focusing on the organizing elements both in theory and in the case of Cypriot settlements where transformations are dramatic. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.