On 2^nd September, ULI Senior Fellow Greg Clark visited Istanbul for a workshop on urban density. The workshop’s purpose was to inform a case study on Istanbul featured in ULI’s second report on density, entitled The Density Dividend: Solutions for Growing and Shrinking Cities.

The participants at the workshop included local authorities, decision makers, investors, researchers and representatives of NGOs. Clark began the workshop by presenting the first report in ULI’s density series and introduced some initial thinking about the long term development of Istanbul in the context of density issues. He asked participants to consider how density may play a role in Turkey’s future growth, in terms of factors such as population levels, industrial structure, and implications for land use and infrastructure.

Participants addressed the following points in their discussion:

• Strong agreement that there needs to be clarity and inclusivity in the deliverance of Istanbul’s municipal plans.
• The new mega projects (Third Airport and Kanal Istanbul) do not exist on the official 2007 municipal plan.
• The importance of a PPP model.
• Consideration of what constitutes as adequate leisure area in projects in İstanbul.
• How to tackle the difficulty of financing projects in Istanbul