Computational Analysis of Urban Transformation in Bursa: Spatial Dynamics of Westernization Period (1861-1910)

Abstract

This study is based on the examination of the socio-spatial effects of the physical changes experienced by the city of Bursa, which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, during the Westernization Period using computational methods. As the former capital of the Ottoman Empire, Bursa became the first city outside Istanbul to implement the legal reforms initiated by the Tanzimat Edict. Factors such as the 1855 earthquake, fires in 1854 and 1863, the mechanization of silk production, and connections to Istanbul by land and sea made it a pilot region for these reforms. The study mathematically compares the 1861 urban fabric, marking the start of restructuring, with the 1910 urban fabric, which continued until the Balkan Wars. Bursa, which had the characteristics of a classical Anatolian city prior to the modernization process, was transformed from a city which had irregular (organic) geometries, which was unsuitable for vehicular transportation, and where efforts were made to create special areas in which settlement was determined according to local architectural dynamics, into a well-planned, geometric (Euclidean) city with wide, western-style roads. The fractal dimension value was used to test the extent to which this transformation affected the urban fabric, while the space syntax method was used to monitor the effects of the physical interventions on the socio-spatial configuration of the city. Within the scope of the study, it was demonstrated with quantitative data that the urban fabric after Westernization was similar to the original fabric, but that there was a significant improvement in accessibility and intelligibility levels.