Hilal Turgut

Evaluation of alterations on historical urban structure of Erzurum with fractal analysis method

Like everything in the world, cities and the values they possess undergo a change process. So, all the components from districts making up a city to streets making up the districts and the architectural structures and elements forming them go through a constructive or unconstructive change or renewal process. Erzurum city heads the list of the cities under the influence of such a change to a great extent due to its historical qualification, too. The aim of this study is to reveal the extent of this change, determine the negative and positive sides of this process and prove using visual material whether we are on the right or wrong direction with respect to general progress and future of the city. In the study, totally eleven couples of images, which can constitute strong relationships between historical and modern structures of the city and represent the historical core were evaluated. The findings, obtained by comparing and evaluating the past, old state and visual materials produced by considering the old state, revealed that we are faced with a big destruction rather than a change process. In addition, another importance of the study is that it has filed a new and up-to-date visual archive of the cultural works, compiled and added new photos to the existing archive. Keywords: Historical city, Urban renewal, Photograph, Erzurum