Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Constructing Modernity: How Industrialization Redefines Physical Culture in Urban Spaces

Efforts to modernize towns and cities often result in the partial erasure of their own historicity. As industrialization’s transformative power becomes more ingrained in the growth processes of urban areas around the world, preservation strategies for culturally significant spaces become increasingly important to historical conservationists. Remodeling the physical environment of historic cities through urban planning presents challenges for cultural landmark preservation. Four major components of physical urban space are emblematic of cultural and historical identity: buildings, street design, open spaces, and monuments. With these aspects of city planning at the forefront of discussion, this thesis begins with historical background, considering the urban renovation of Paris between 1853-1870 and its influence as a template of modernization outside of France. The outflux of industrial technologies from Western Europe between the late 19th and early 20th centuries influenced an evolution of urban space in the Ottoman Empire’s capital of Istanbul. As a historical study of urban morphology, this research illuminates what environmental symptoms of industrialization complicate matters of historical authenticity and cultural security within cities caught up in a trend toward technological modernization. Studying cities that were initially ill-equipped to grapple with negative social, economic, and environmental consequences of unprecedented growth and spatial redevelopment serves as a jumping-off point for crafting solutions to contemporary crises of cultural degradation. Moreover, the internationally pervasive influence of a Western model for industrial society is such that these lessons may find applicability in the developing world.