Urban transformation is a prominent topic within Istanbul’s urban planning
agenda. Transformation process of the city falls under the scope of academicians
and the related authorities; and is a focus of debate from different perspectives
in daily life. In this atmosphere, centralised policies promote construction facil-
ities as the leading economic sector, and the legislation sets the legal framework
facilitating transformation processes. This transformation in Istanbul occurs in
two forms; as area-based regeneration projects and single building renewal pro-
cesses. Area-based regeneration projects have long been examined due to their
widespread effects, however single building renewal also leads to transformation
over the long term. The motivation behind this paper is to examine the single
building renewal process by means of a case study – Bakirkoy, which is one of the
sub-centres of Istanbul. In this context, the paper aims to construct an analytical
evaluation of the regeneration process in Bakirkoy and tries to evaluate the pro-
cess linking it with critiques of property-led regeneration debates worldwide. This
paper covers a periodical evaluation of this process by attempting to understand
the urban transformation pattern by means of a descriptive spatial analysis, and a
discussion of recent policies in Bakirkoy case.
