Proposals for Revitalization of Karataş Historical Settlement
Authors: BOZKURT Eray , DURMUŞLAR Feyza 
Published: June 2021

There is growing evidence that heritage conservation carries benefits in many areas of the urban environment. Local authorities, decision makers, institutions and authorities involved in urban development programs have recognized the urgent need to preserve their cultural resources and assets. The scientific community and research activities have brought to attention the development of methodologies, technologies and tools to guide, forecast, monitor and assess old buildings. The concept of historical environments is first drawn in Venice Charter as “urban or rural setting”. It is defined as “the evidence of a particular civilization, a significant development or a historic event” (ICOMOS, 1964). According to this charter, monuments should be evaluated with its environment. Ahunbay (2011) stated that historical environments are open-air museums that reveals how people have live in the past. Historical environments are educational places in terms of lifestyle, construction techniques, social life and culture. Washington Charter (1987) defined the elements, which is constituted of the historical characteristics of the historical settlements as follows: economic and social development, urban and regional planning should be integrated to the conservation of historic towns and urban areas. Urban patterns, open space, green space and buildings relationships, scale, size, style, construction technique, material, colour and decoration of the buildings, surrounding of the setting and its relationship between the urban area, various function has acquired over time. Burra Charter (2013) provides guideline for conservation and management. Conservation defined as retain cultural significance of a place. It is part of management of places of cultural significance. First step of conservation is understanding of cultural significance, then development of policy and management of the place should be developed. In accordance with these ideas, the conservation of the historical site approach is developed. To conserve characteristics of the cities and preserve its identity, conservation of a region (instead of conservation a single building) should be done (Radoslav et al, 2012). Historical settlements are one of the important elements that determine the identity of the cities. These environments have many values including art, architectural, historical and documentary. They provide information about historical settlements and lifestyle. It is important to conserve these environments, to sustain these values (Ahunbay, 2011). They make cities more attractive and it promote the economy at the same time. This idea increased the attention to historic settlements to manage sustainable urban development (Radoslav et al, 2012). Historical environments should be evaluated with strategies that have a holistic and participatory approach. The study focuses on Karataş (Quarantine) historical settlement, once occupied by Jewish, Armenian, Greek and Turkish families during the 19th Century Ottoman Period. They built buildings to support their communities’ needs. Some of these buildings are still standing with same or different building functions. Many of them with the help of the restoration projects, survived to emphasize the cultural identity of their period. After the intrusion of modern apartments, mass road constructions, seaside fills and incline in population, Karataş area had transformed rapidly. The aim of this study is to evaluate current approaches to the Historical Karataş region and defining new strategies to conservation of the site.