Istanbul’s Gecekondu Homes Reveal the Building Blocks of a Megalopolis
Gecekondu, or “landed overnight,” homes were hastily constructed as residents from the countryside rushed to Turkey’s urban centers after World War II.
A gecekondu in the Küçük Armutlu neighborhood of Istanbul.
Photographer: Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg
(This article is part of Bloomberg CityLab’s series exploring the iconic home designs that shaped global cities. Read more from the series. Get the next story sent to your inbox by subscribing to the CityLab Daily newsletter.)
In the shadow of Istanbul’s better-known buildings — its historic Ottoman mosques, its grand late-19th-century apartments, its modern skyscrapers — the wanderer occasionally stumbles upon a structure that looks out of place even in a city famous for its mélange of architectural styles and eras. These small, squat, simple homes, often with roughly white-washed walls, a metal door, and a low-pitched roof, are more redolent of the hardscrabble countryside than a megalopolis of more than 15 million people. But though few of these homes, referred to as gecekondu, (“pronounced “GEDJ-Eh-Kond-U” — the first syllable rhyming with “hedge”) remain standing in this form, these humble abodes are vital to understanding how Turkey’s largest city became what it is today.