KITO versus TOKI : Tactics for Resilient Post-Urban Development
Turkey is currently one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. At 14 million inhabitants and a yearly growth rate of 3.5 percent, Istanbul has fully benefited from this economic boom. Starting in the 1960s, its rapid urbanization has had three main phases: gecekondus squatter villages; post-gecekondus’ additional building rights; and mass housing since the 1990s. Unlike earlier “self-building” phases, the recent mass housing is organized predominantly through the Housing Development Agency of Turkey, Toplu Konut İdaresi Başkanlığı (TOKI), and it employs a single urban typology: gated complexes of repetitive tower clusters on open land.
TOKI development parallels the emergence of a new middle class in Istanbul for whom a TOKI flat is part of a dream of car and house ownership, even if this brings social isolation, long hours in traffic, and long-term debt. This deeply indebted middle class is also prone to be the most vulnerable during periods of recession. In the face of continuing political, economic, and ecological uncertainties, and the rising costs of energy, TOKI inhabitants have to become more resilient.
Kolektif İşbirlikçi Toplum Oluşumu / The Collective and Collaborative Agency (KITO), is a proposal for a post-urban development initiative that uses open-source, citizen-driven R-Urban regeneration to transform TOKI complexes. KITO works at different scales and levels of resilient action to retrofit spaces, equipment, services, and institutions. KITO’s collective interaction is facilitated via KITO’da, an online network that creates an alternative economy, assigning value to local actions and empowering people to make, give, share, and save energy, services, goods, knowledge, and skills. Instead of consuming the city, residents share in its production.
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