Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Çıkmacılar (removers) became active players in the informal housing economy of Turkey as early as the 1970s when demands for affordable solutions in housing production were at a peak in the urban centres of Turkey. Salvaging, accumulating, and selling such infrastructural elements such as doors, window frames, and sanitary equipment from soon to be demolished buildings, çıkmacılar functioned as the primary suppliers of some the most fundamental construction materials at a time when housing production relied predominantly upon solidarity networks and informal means. In the aftermath of a series of legal and bureaucratic reforms which led to substantial formalization in the housing sector, it is interesting to observe that çıkmacılar have not only sustained within the changing conditions but also have became integral to the functioning of an increasingly neoliberalized and totalitarian urban economy. This paper initially provides a review of the evolution of çıkmacılar from a provider of relational structures within the context of an informally driven urban development to a vital operator in the functioning of a neoliberal urban economy within a formal context. More importantly, it analyzes the way in which çıkmacılar have come to wedge between the formal and the informal as they keep serving for a continually thriving construction and real-estate industry although their status in legal terms remains unresolved. What is more, their informality also links to the way in which salvaged materials are redistributed and reused upon lands that are not open for construction in various parts of Turkey.