Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

In Fall 1970, a cholera epidemic broke out in the intersection of unplanned growth, urban inequality and fragmented water distribution networks of Istanbul. This paper focuses on the modern history of water within that context. It investigates how water transportation, distribution, collection systems transformed in tandem with the emerging modernist ideas of hygiene, health and the city. Cholera epidemic infects via contaminated water sources and displays the unhygienic conditions in certain parts of the city in addition to the haphazard and hybrid features of Istanbul’s water infrastructure. Despite numerous attempts made by both municipal and national authorities, keeping track of the city’s rapid and unplanned urbanization has been challenging because of the particular socio-political and economic tensions of the era. As Istanbul rapidly expanded towards its hinterland, previously untapped subterranean water sources were put in use and abandoned historical water structures were repurposed for supplementing the city’s water system. Given the context, this paper delves into Istanbul’s urban inequalities at the time as they were materially manifested via its particular hydropolitics and changing water geographies.