Why Ataköy?
Ataköy is where I live since 2008. This is the first suburban neighborhood, built outside the centers of the city, nearby the airport, as a place for upper middle classes in 1980's. Nowadays, with the accelerated growth of the city, it is not so peripheral any more, and it is not the location of only upper classes; instead it is a milieu inhabited by middle class people from every level (considering that the definition and the scope of middle class is much wider now). Also it is the first example of the "gated communities" of today's Istanbul. With one difference: Ataköy was built with no gates inside, everyone from different blocks had the chance to access the gardens of the other blocks; it was designed as a big, total, intertwined neighborhood. One of the reasons was that at that time, it was naturally isolated from the "Others"; with Şirinevler (the neighborhood on the oher side of the E-5 highway) as a very small, underdeveloped neigborhood which was'nt yet a threat for the uper class life in Ataköy. But now, there is a vivid debate on the newly constructed gates within Ataköy, among older Ataköy inhabitants. This debate is about the "soul" of Ataköy, which is not suitable for the gates. For them the gardens and the blocks should remain open to everybody; in other words, for them the sense of being a community is dissolved with the construction of the gates and walls.
The soul of the community still survives and it can be deteced in everyday life, in the administrative and local organisations: muhtarlık (kind of local government), ataköylüler derneği (local citizens association), the everyday relationships among inhabitants, and the use of the space by them. In this part of my study, I will observe and analyse Ataköy's everyday life through soundscapes folllowing the methods proposed by the soundscape studies.
The soul of the community still survives and it can be deteced in everyday life, in the administrative and local organisations: muhtarlık (kind of local government), ataköylüler derneği (local citizens association), the everyday relationships among inhabitants, and the use of the space by them. In this part of my study, I will observe and analyse Ataköy's everyday life through soundscapes folllowing the methods proposed by the soundscape studies.
A new road crossing Ataköy
in İstanbul there is an ever changing and dynamic series of discovering alternative roads. These alternative pathways are transformed to main roads by the course of time, and new alternatives are recreated. An example is the pathway between Ataköy and Airport shopping mall along the E-5 high way. This way was first begun to be used as an alternative and “secret” way to the e-5 highway, it was used by the ones who knew it, and even it was a very bad route. Now the municipality took charge again and began to work in order to make that path a real one, which will directly affect the soundscape of Ataköy.
This way leads from E-5 to just the center of Ataköy, and it connects to the very silent main route of the neighborhood. When this route will become a highway the inhabitants will be crashed under a second layer of noise (the first one is the noise of the airplanes and the distant sound of e-5). In the gardens of the buildings in Ataköy one can hear the sounds of green parrots, the sounds of different kinds of birds, including nightingales. In fact there is a considerable population of green parrots and nightingales there. It is not difficult to guess that these birds will disappear with the evolution of the silent route to a highway.
This way leads from E-5 to just the center of Ataköy, and it connects to the very silent main route of the neighborhood. When this route will become a highway the inhabitants will be crashed under a second layer of noise (the first one is the noise of the airplanes and the distant sound of e-5). In the gardens of the buildings in Ataköy one can hear the sounds of green parrots, the sounds of different kinds of birds, including nightingales. In fact there is a considerable population of green parrots and nightingales there. It is not difficult to guess that these birds will disappear with the evolution of the silent route to a highway.
