ABSTRACT
Mainstream urban design has been criticized as becoming a conformist practice and the tool of neoliberal urbanism. However, non-conformist minority in urban design has emerged in search of ways to demarcate opportunities to emancipate making of urban landscapes and the discipline from the dominancy of market-oriented practices. Against this context, this chapter aims to elaborate the meaning of emancipation and emancipatory practice for urban design through a case study: the Yeldeğirmeni Neighbourhood Revitalisation Project (2010–2013) in Istanbul that sought to identify an alternative to top-down gentrification based on a participatory model embracing local dwellers’ social and spatial production.
