Disconnected Circuits: A Spatial Reading of Adaptive Reuse in Izmir’s Former Power Plant in Turkey

This thesis provides an answer to the feasibility of adaptive reuse as a holistic approach to regeneration of non-active industrial heritage buildings, in the case of Izmir city’s historic electricity factory situated in Alsancak district. Izmir, as one of the principal port cities of Turkey, was the leading port of Turkish national industrialization and urbanization starting from the late Ottoman period until the beginning of the Republican period. Alsancak zone, which is the city’s former industrial core, retains significant architectural and cultural remnants that present a singular opportunity for research into the interaction between heritage conservation and urban renewal. The research aims to answer the new city’s needs for sustainable, inclusive, and memory-sensitive urban development by examining how industrial heritage can be reinterpreted and reused but for today’s purposes without ignoring its past. Theoretical investigations focus on socio-economic and environmental effects of industrial remnants, considers global conservation standards such as the TICCIH Principles, and analyses from comparative case studies in an effort to create best practice in adaptive reuse. One of the central questions posed in the thesis is how concepts of adaptive reuse can revitalize the abandoned industrial structures— particularly the Izmir power plant—into new urban fabric without diminishing cultural and historical value. Sub-questions informing the research concern matters of local identity, public engagement, spatial continuity, and preservation of industrial memory, all of which are essential in creating future-oriented narratives of the contemporary city. In bringing theoretical argument to design-based intervention, the study evaluates the abandoned Former Power Plant not only as a part of history but as a latent socio-cultural catalyst in Izmir’s new cityscape. Lastly, the thesis promotes a contextual approach to reuse—one which negotiates between preservation and change to allow for a sustainable and meaningful future for post-industrial urban space.