The Concept of the Urban Palimpsest. The Urban Fabric Transformations in Inherited City image

Abstract

Transformations and spatial patterns of physical forms are the basis of urban morphological studies to understand and interpret the process-based – multi-layered – transitions, transformations and spatial patterns of physical components. The concept of palimpsest explains the continuous construction over time (historical stratification), but the scale of urban palimpsest is more than that. The research points out the pragmatic nature of the urban fabric and aims to examine the relationship between the fundamental types of transformations and their distinctive forces. Thus, in the current study, the structure of historical layering analysis includes elaborating the proposed palimpsest concept via comparison/overlapping historic maps of urban fabric types. The layers of inherited city image can experience through the combination of different urban morphological approaches. Via the combination of historico-geographical, typo-morphological, and configurational approaches of urban morphology, the layering analysis will be established. The purpose of the current paper is to demonstrate the urban palimpsest concept and make a proof of the concept in the urban conservation sites of Istanbul.