Advertising media and housing production: Gated communities of İstanbul in the post-2000s

Abstract

In this dissertation I investigate how the marketing strategies of the developing consumer society has infiltrated the marketing of high end housing in Istanbul as a corollary development of globalization. I aim to analyze marketing strategies as active agents that shape the design of these newly emerging housing developments based on the theme of .an ideal life style. through advertising media in the form of TV commercials, newspaper ads, publicity brochures etc.This study also focuses on the representation and dissemination of this elusive .ideal. to the public via the advertising campaigns of these housing settlements. Therefore the cases that the study is based on concentrates on the Turkish architectural scene after 1990 when consumer culture.s most significant impacts on architectural products are observed. The study observes that the marketing of this new type of suburbanization in Turkey is concomitant with the rise of a new middle class that has a high purchasing power. Therefore I analyse the life style characteristics of architectural projects that provide for this class, according to Bourdieu.s conceptualization of life styles, and aim to uncover how this conceptualization reflects on the marketing of high-end housing.In this regard, the concept of .distinction. will be used as key theoretical tool to analyse the qualities of environments proposed in the selected cases. The relation between the advertising strategies of a .distinct life style. and its legitimization process which directly affect the .fabrication. of these specialized housing settlements will remain at the core of my thesis problem.