Coğrafi Bilgi Teknolojileri ile Taşınmaz Kültür Varlıkları Envanterlerinin Oluşturulması: Büyükada, Nizam ve Maden Mahalleri Örneği
Adalar ilçesi tarihi, çok kültürlü yapısı ve doğal mirası ile İstanbul’un en iyi korunmuş ve ülke coğrafyasında var olan tüm dinlerin, dillerin, kültürlerin bir arada varlığını koruyabildiği ender yerlerdendir. 1846’da Adalar’a ilk buharlı düzenli vapur seferleri ile kentsel doku oluşmaya ve sosyal yaşamda gelişmeler görülmeye başlamıştır. Çalışmada, Büyükada’da Nizam ve Maden mahallelerindeki taşınmaz kültür varlığı olarak tescillenen yapılar için konumsal veritabanı tasarlanması ve koruma faktörünün sağlıklı bir şekilde sürdürülebilmesi için ve kültür rotası oluşturulması amaçlanmıştır. Konumsal veritabanı üzerinden envanter kayıtları oluşturulmuş, soyut ve somut kültürel miras örneği yapıların güzergahlarını kapsayan bir kültür rotası belirlenmiş ve sonuçlar, web tabanlı coğrafi bilgi sistemleri uygulaması ile görselleştirilmiştir. Araştırmada Büyükada’da bulunan 2000 adet yapının 803 adedinin “Taşınmaz Kültür Varlığı” olarak tescillendiği saptanmış, yapıların büyük oranda fiziksel ve işlevsel özgünlüğü koruduğu görülmüştür. İstanbul genelinde koruma anlayışının en başarılı şekilde sürdürülebildiği alanlardan biri Adalar ilçesidir. Bir dönemi yansıtan ve İstanbul’un kimliğine katkı sağlayan tarihi öneme sahip yapıların, gelecek kuşaklara aktarılması ve korunması amacı ile coğrafi bilgi teknolojilerine dayalı bir koruma ve izleme sistemi önerilmektedir.
Creating Immovable Cultural Heritage Inventories with Geographical Information Technologies: A Case Study of the Nizam and Maden Neighborhoods on Büyükada
With its history, diverse structure, and natural heritage, the Municipality of Adalar stands as one of the best-preserved areas in Istanbul. It is a rare space where various religions, languages, and cultures coexist harmoniously. With the introduction of the first regular steam ferry services to the Princes’ Islands in 1846, the urban texture began to take shape, marking the initiation of social life development. This study aims to design a geodatabase and create a cultural route for healthily maintaining the protection factor for buildings registered as immovable cultural assets in the Nizam and Maden neighborhoods on Büyükada [The Big Island]. The study uses the geodatabase to create inventory records and determine a cultural path encompassing the routes of buildings exemplifying both tangible and intangible cultural heritage and then visualizes the results with a web-based geographic information systems (GIS) application. The study found 803 of the 2,000 buildings on Büyükada to be registered as immovable cultural heritage and observed these buildings to have largely maintained their original architectural features and functional purposes. The Municipality of Adalar is one of the areas where the understanding of architectural conservation can be most successfully maintained throughout Istanbul. The study proposes a conservation and monitoring system based on GIS technologies for transferring and protecting to future generations the historically significant buildings that reflect a specific era and that contribute to Istanbul’s identity.
Adalar has historically been a place of exile and solitude that entered a phase of rapid urban development with the start of regular ferry services. Preserving the buildings from this era that have endured to the present day has become increasingly difficult due to the changing living conditions, urbanization, population expansion, and technological advancements in building construction. One of the most crucial measures for ensuring the protection of registered cultural property buildings is to maintain all information and documents about their architectural and historical processes in a single database.
Geographic information systems (GIS) software provides solutions for the cultural artifacts that need to be protected in urban and natural areas. The data and documents regarding the artifacts in these fields can be kept in one database thanks to GIS, through which the tasks and transactions that must be completed to secure the artifacts are carried out in a more wholesome manner.
Numerous studies have been carried out by the local government, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and universities to document the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Adalar. However, these studies were not conducted on a digital platform that could also serve as an inventory. This problem affects the sustainability of cultural heritage and poses challenges for both the personnel of and visitors to public institutions.
The objective of this project is to use GIS to compile an inventory of the structures listed as immovable cultural heritage in the Nizam and Maden neighborhoods on Büyükada in Istanbul Province’s Municipality of Adalar in order to maintain a healthy level of protection. The study intends to display the results by developing a cultural route that identifies the paths of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage structures, in addition to developing the Cultural Heritage Inventories using a geodatabase design and web-based GIS software.
The data for the buildings registered as immovable cultural property in the study area that is Büyükada’s Nizam and Maden neighborhoods were obtained as a current map in NetCAD (a computer-aided design [CAD] program) format from the Municipality of Adalar Directorate of Reconstruction and Urbanization. This directorate provided information about the registered immovable cultural properties. The study examined the municipal zoning archive files for the Council of Europe Inventory Receipts of the registered buildings, with registration slips for very few buildings being found in the archive files. The study obtained the data regarding the other technical details of the buildings from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The study also uses the texts in the Museum of the Princes’ Islands, which tell the stories of the registered structures in the historical process, as written resources, as well as Pars Tuğlaci’s (1989) book Istanbul Islands Throughout History. Data are organized for usage with GIS applications. Existing maps in the NetCAD format were converted to feature serve as a base. The study prepared the information on the registered structures in order to add a new layer to the existing maps and then created the geodatabase with the registered structures layer.
As a result of the query regarding the Nizam and Maden neighborhoods, 803 of the 2,000 structures on Büyükada were discovered to have been listed as immovable cultural heritage. The registered buildings had generally been constructed between the late 19th to early 20th centuries and had belonged to the Greek families who were living on the island at the time. When making the “ANIT_TURU” [type of memorial] queries about the registered buildings, 719 civil architectural examples were seen to be present. When querying the buildings’ physical and functional authenticity, the majority of them was discovered to have maintained their physical originality. Queries regarding the ownership structure reveal 654 of the 803 registered buildings to be privately owned, with the ownership of buildings like mosques and churches being shown to generally belong to foundations.
This study has developed a cultural route by identifying the routes where the architectural heritage richness of the Princes’ Islands is the most intense and appropriate. This is thought to be able to support island tourism by having the cultural route used to introduce local and foreign guests to the island. Lastly, the study has created a web-based GIS application in order to be able to visualize the results.
