Change phenomenon on the concept of consumption. An empirical study the new and existing retail structures in the context of Istanbul, Turkey

Retail structures are in transformation—again—. The evolution of these structures in the history shows how these places have always needed to keep changing and renovating. This dynamic nature of consumption and the structures allocated for the purpose of consumption conduce toward the necessity of being up to date or even be ahead of time for these structures by following, predicting and proposing new trends and technology. Although the translocation of these structures from urban center to periphery is a fact for more than 60 years, some structures used particularly for retail purposes are still located in their historical places—the consolidated urban core—. Nevertheless, the perception of the users of these structures are changing. While the new out-of-town structures are creating new centralities with the use of state-of-the-art technologies and futuristic designs, the central retail venues are trying to keep up by new innovations, technologies and trends. These places are becoming the ‘consumption based monuments’ in the urban context. They have developed a new characteristic besides shopping. Moreover, the phenomenon of change did not change the fact that these places are always the most prominent public spaces of their times as they currently are and will presumably be, forevermore. That is the reason why these structures need particular attention by the architects, with the help of urbanists and other disciplines. This thesis is a holistic work which is not only analyzing the new ‘sustainably certified’ structures, but also evaluating the renovation and retrofitting of the existing structures in a particular context in an empirical way. The main goal of the work is understanding “How these central public realms are changing shape in the globalized and high-tech world?” and “How the existing shopping centers can make correspond and be adapted in its urban context to the new and sustainable structures and strategies?”