ITU A|Z • Vol 19 No 2 • July 2022 • 459-470

Creating spaces for art: Long term

impacts of street art in the urban
context

Emre KOLÇAK1, Nursen KAYA EROL2

1 emrrekolcak@gmail.com • Department of Architecture, Faculty of
Architecture, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
2 nursenkaya@iyte.edu.tr • Department of City and Regional Planning, Faculty
of Architecture, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkey

Received: March 2021 • Final Acceptance: October 2021

Abstract
Street art can be defined as any informal artistic performances or artworks
practiced in the public spaces. Street art has the potential to transform the public
spaces by contributing to or reducing the quality of these spaces. Through street
art, in many cases, public spaces are transformed into places for entertainment,
cultural activities, or areas of protests and expression of the feelings and ideas.
The impacts of street art practices might be limited to one part of an open space
or spread to a district or even to the entire city depending on its temporal dimen-
sion. This article aims to examine the relationship of street art and public space.
In this context, the article overviews the concept of street art and demonstrates
its positive, negative and temporal impacts on public space. This study uses a case
study approach and evaluates the long term impacts of street art practices based
on the analysis of three cases in the city of İzmir, Turkey. In İzmir cases it is found
out that the street art practices transformed the public space in terms of uses,
activities and built environment quality and had impacts on economic and social
doi: 10.5505/itujfa.2022.16768

structure of the community. The findings of this study reveal that street art holds
the potential of contributing to the city life through creating spaces for artistic
activities and moreover of changing the meaning and identity of the public spaces
and the settlements.

Keywords
Street art, Urban art, Public space, Place identity, Transformation of public space.
460

1. Introduction
Street Art is not always called Street
Art (Blanché, 2015). The concepts of
Urban Art and Public Art are also used
for similar artistic practices. But they
are not identical. Among the three, ur-
ban art is the most inclusive one defined
as “an umbrella term for any art in the
style of street art, style writing or mu-
ral art” (Blanché, 2015, 38). Urban art
involves any formal or informal artistic
performances practiced in public spaces
in the urban area.
Public art is perceived as any artistic Figure 1. Conceptual Relations of Street Art,
public pieces located inside of a public Public Art and Urban Art (Source: Author).
space such as shopping malls, publically
founded art museums and galleries or with pop art culture and have been per-
outdoor public spaces. (Moran & Byrne, formed in large number of types and
2018). Public art includes formal artistic styles using different tools and tech-
expressions presented inside or outside niques. Currently, major types street
the public spaces or spaces perceived art are graffiti including murals, reverse
as public spaces (third space). It has a graffiti, stencil and sticker, posters, mo-
wide range of practices from buildings saic, 3D chalk art, wheat paste, collage,
or landmark towers to street sculptures. moss, rain works; guerilla gardening;
Public art projects gained importance 3D projection mapping; street instal-
by 1930s (Moran & Byrne, 2018). The lations including land art, sculptures,
art projects in the 1930s and 1940s yarn bombing, everyday objects; and
such as 1935-1943 Federal Art Project street performances including busking,
(FAP) and 1933-1934 Public Works of pantomime, theatre, dancers, living
Art Project (PWAP) in the United States statutes, jugglers, magicians, acrobats,
were some outstanding examples aim- clowns, flash mobbing (Kolcak, 2020).
ing to support the artists financially fol- Due to its interdependence with the
lowing the Great Depression. (Gelber, street, street art becomes a site-specific
1979.) While its early attempts seemed conception. In describing the character-
as a struggle to support the unemployed istics of street art, variations of site-spe-
artists, public art evolved in the form cific terminology such as site-deter-
of artworks sited either temporarily or mined, site-oriented, site-referenced,
permanently in any media and public site-conscious, site-responsive, and
places (Moran & Byrne, 2018). site-related are commonly referred by
For street art, one of the early defi- the artists and researchers (Kwon, 2002).
nition was used by Robbert Sommer in However, street is not only a physical
his book “Street Art” in 1975. He mostly space. “The street is more than just a
used the term to refer murals and paint- place for movement and circulation”
ings and addressed the dimensions of (Lefebvre, 1970, 18). Conklin defines
legality and publicness (Sommer, 1975). street art as “not just a spatial phenom-
A current definition is that street art rep- enon; but as a complex social phenome-
resents informal artistic performances non that produces intense emotions for
practiced mostly outdoor public spaces. different people at different times and
According to the community responses contexts” (Conklin, 2012, 5). Similar-
it has the potential of being conceived as ly, Moughtin (1992) states that street is
an illegal activity or in opposite an orga- not only a physical element in the city,
nized formal public activity. it is also a social phenomenon, where
Street art has a long history dates the three-dimensional physical form
back to ancient ages. The practices of which influencing the activities and in-
street art evolved based on the polit- directly social relations. The artworks in
ical and social changes in the world as the context of street art use the street in
well as technological innovations. Mod- various ways such as a canvas, a decor, a
ern street art practices gained impetus platform, a theme, an object, a partici-
pant or a social entity.
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In the studies conducted since 2000s, (Ursic, 2014). The impact of street art
street art has been associated with the on public space can be in four forms;
concepts such as creative place-making, 1. Enhancing the Public Place →
gentrification, tactical urbanization, re- Positive Impact
vitalization or regeneration. Street art 2. Transforming Unsuccessful Pub-
is defined as a tool of place-making in lic Space into Public Place → Positive
revitalization practices, a tool of tac- Impact
tical urbanism and pop-up urbanism 3. Transforming Lost Space into
(Doumpa & Broad, 2014), a tool of in- Public Place → Positive Impact
surgent urbanism, a method of tour- 4. Failure of Public Space → Nega-
ist attraction policy (Insch & Walters, tive Impact
2017), a city branding policy (Sarah,
2011), or sometimes vandalism and 2.1. Positive and negative impacts
crime (Ceccato & Wilhelmsson, 2012). There is an increasing correlation
Though street art has a long history, between practices of street art and
the researches on the relationship of changes in socio-economic and urban
street art and public space is rather new. dynamics (Forte & Paola, 2019). While
One of the initial efforts about street art reconstructing the built environment,
and its relationship with urban space street art can contribute to the “physi-
came from Conklin in her study “Street cal sustainability” or the “sustainability
Art, Ideology and Public Space” in 2012. of the built environment”. The contri-
Emergence of new concepts such as tac- butions can be seen as change in land
tical urbanism, creative place making use, neighborhood, social structure,
have directly or indirectly contributed property values, economic activity, so-
to the increase of the researches about cial mixing and participation. (Forte
street art. The researches questioning & Paola, 2019). Kwon describes the
what street art is and its influences on place of the art in public space with
urban space increased by the establish- three paradigms. First, art placed out-
ment of Urban Creativity Organization doors to decorate or enrich the urban
in Lisbon in 2014. Most of the research- space like a sculpture; second, it cre-
es focus on spatial, time wise and legality ates public space; and third art is in the
dimensions of street art (Blanché, 2015; public interest. It embodies communi-
Conklin, 2012). Some studies examine ty messages, social issues and a stand
the connection between street art, space of society with such practices as gue-
and place concern (Doumpa & Broad, rilla theatre, protest actions, dances,
2014; Cox & Guaralda, 2016). There are posters, etc. (Kwon, 2002) Similar to
very few studies on the impacts of street Kwon’s arguments, Miles (1997) argues
art in transformation of a space into a that art plays a role as decoration with-
place (Kwon, 2002; Riggle, 2010). in a re-visioned field of urban design.
This article aims to investigate the Street art contributes to the revitaliza-
impacts of street art on public spaces tion and regeneration of urban space.
and to reveal how street art changes the Street art promotes the sense of place
characteristics of the public spaces and in public space. It also increases the
their surroundings in terms of not only physical, social and psychological ac-
physical structure but also economic cessibility, use and activity, sociability
and social life of the district or the city. of the users, and enhances safety, com-
In this context, the article first examines fort, mental and physical image of the
the positive, negative and temporal im- space.
pacts of street art and then focuses on Beside its positive impacts, street
the long term impacts on three cases art might cause a failure of the space
with different characteristics and in dif- due to its negative impacts on users,
ferent locations in İzmir. performance areas and its surround-
ings. In some cases, street art can cause
2. The impacts of street art on public physical damage such as noise and
space visual pollution or harms of contact-
Street Art has many impacts on us- ing with chemicals. It may also cause
ers of the space as street artists or au- negative psychological impacts by
dience of street art, and the city itself evoking sense of insecurity with over

Creating spaces for art: Long term impacts of street art in the urban context
462

and amoral practices. Semi-illegal and as place (Whyte, 1980). The space be-
semi-legal dimensions of street art are comes sociable, and attractive. Another
evoking the sense of crime, disorder, street art type is the graffiti which not
offensiveness, sense of scuzzy-ness on only attracts people’s attentions on the
the users of the street (Conklin, 2012). walls, building facades, but also attracts
While vandalism can cause physical de- the artists into the space and creates an
terioration, disorder, and motivates the opportunity for an interaction between
fear of crime (Ceccato & Wilhelmsson, artists and the audiences. People start
2012), the damages created by vandal- to watch the performance and interact
ism give sense about the space that no with each other which makes the pub-
one is in control. Vandalism also hide lic place more sociable. In some cases,
and reduce the significance of historical the public space gains a reputation as
buildings and even cause the physical “graffiti alley” and becomes a brand.
deterioration of the historical buildings The example of guerilla gardening pro-
(Dionisio & Ribeiro, 2013). Many cities vides the people’s contact with nature,
spend an important budget for graffi- increases the biodiversity of the urban
ti removal (Geason & Wilson, 1990). space and creates memorable place.
Another negative impact of street art While guerilla gardening brings visu-
practices is its influence on house prices al and olfactive pleasure to the user of
(Ceccato & Wilhelmsson, 2012). the space, another example, installation
Either by increasing or decreas- artwork surprises the users and create
ing the house prices it may lead to a memorable places.
change in the residents of the district. The long-term impacts of street art
Successful street art practices can also on public space can be observed in land
indirectly affect public spaces nega- use, social structure and participation,
tively as it may cause gentrification. To property values and economic activity
overcome the negative impacts, many of the area, building forms and layout.
countries take precautions against the Street art contributes to city econo-
damages. The possibility of crime, fear my and regeneration of the city. Street
of crime, vandalism, bad practices of art attracts the residents and tourist by
street art and the cost of removal and highlighting an unknown space or re-
preventing efforts force the cities to newing the image of the place (Cluzeau,
make legal arrangements to regulate 2017). A recent trend is that street art is
street art practices. promoted and exhibited in organized
ways (Insch & Walters, 2017). To foster
2.2. Temporal impacts urban tourism various cities have been
Either negative or positive there is using street art by organizing street art
also a temporal dimension in street art’s walks, festivals and other activities. In
impacts. The temporal impacts of street urban tourism the role of the street art is
art on public space can be categorized as conceived as “a vehicle to attract visitors
short-term impacts and long-term im- to a city or neighborhood; a platform to
pacts. Short-term is described as a pe- bring vitality to smaller spaces within
riod of time of less than one year while the city; a staged experience for visitors;
long-term is more than one year (Cam- a facet of residents place identity; and a
bridge dictionary). The impacts on user vehicle for place-making for local busi-
perception on spatial quality can be seen nesses and residents” (Insch & Walters,
in short term and the impacts related to 2017, 616).
the change in land use, buildings and In Penang (Malaysia) case, street art
urban layout, and social and economic supported local industries such as local
structure can be seen in long-term. art, retails, restaurant, cafes, hotels, etc.;
The short-term impacts of street art and led to increase new creative com-
differ according to street art types. For mercial developments in the city such
instance, busking performances tempo- as art galleries, museums, hotels, cafes
rarily affect the sensory experience of and restaurants. Consequently, it had a
public space and connect with people role on Penang’s local tourism and in-
on a humanistic level (Cox & Guaral- ternational tourism, as well (Fun, 2014).
da, 2016). A city square with musicians The example of Lennon Wall is similar
and entertainers make the space work to Penang city experience. Lennon Wall,

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 463

located in Malá Strana (Czech Repub- • increase sensory experience of the

lic), is known as a traditional place for space
free expressions of Graffiti. When John • create memorable places
Lennon was murdered, Czech activist • prevent sense of horror and crime
people chosen the wall to express the • provide contact with nature
idea of freedom and peace. Although • make the users volunteer to partic-
the public authority tried to clean the ipate in the activities
wall, the graffiti practices repeated. Af- • create shared activities for the
ter the decline of the regime the wall community
became a visiting space of tourists (Mc- • provide place for free expression
Collum, & McCollum. n.d). Being a • attract additional artists into the
landmark, Lennon Wall contributes to space
development of pubs, cafes, hotels and • create an opportunity for an inter-
other commercial and tourism facilities. action between the artists and the au-
Liz Christy Community Garden in diences
the Bowery Houston area in New York • eliminate unused and uncared sit-
is a well-known example for transfor- uation of the space
mation of lost space into a public place. Long-term Impacts (associated
In 1973 Liz Christy and her Green mostly with the change in physical, so-
Guerrilla group transformed a derelict cial and economic structure):
private lot into a garden without any • change in land use
permission. After a while it became a • change in building facades and lay-
formal community garden provided out of the public space
the neighborhood with an open space • change in property values
rather than a built-up area. It allowed • contribute to city economy, eco-
people to interact with the nature and nomic activity of the area
with each other by sharing the activ- • support local industries
ity of gardening. Then the garden was • led to increase new creative com-
charged with $ 1 a month by the City’s mercial developments
office of Housing Preservation and • foster urban tourism, attract visi-
Development. After a while, the plan- tors to a city or a district
tation was varied and new residents of • foster participation, communica-
the garden such as turtles was added to tion and collaboration
garden. In 2002 the garden was trans- • foster regeneration
formed into a recreation area and an • renew the image and identity of the
urban park (Loggins, 2007). Currently, place
the graffiti artists started to show them- • increase biodiversity
selves on the walls of the garden. Negative Impacts (associated most-
The impacts of street art on public ly with the user perception on spatial
space can be summarized as: quality and the change in physical, so-
Short term impacts (associated most- cial and economic structure):
ly with the user perception on spatial • Causing physical damage to people
quality): • Causing physical damage to prac-
• make the space multi-functional, at- tice area and surroundings
tractive and interactive • Causing visual and audial pollution
• make the space perceivable and vis- • Causing bad psychological impacts
ible on audiences or residents such
• increase quality, vitality and accessi- as creating sense of crime, inse-
bility for all groups cureness, disorder, offensiveness,
• provide easy orientation for the users scuzzy-ness and creating fear of
• surprise the users crime
• hold people longer time at the space • Make house price down
• create a landmark for the district or • Brings social disorder
the city • Damaging personal rights
• create human scale physical environ- • Brings extra expenses for city econ-
ment omy such as cleaning costs of mu-
• create sense of enjoyment and antic- rals, repairing costs of surfaces of
ipation practice area

Creating spaces for art: Long term impacts of street art in the urban context
464

• Hidden and reduce significance of

the historical buildings
• Causing residential displacement
with gentrification process.

3. Three case studies in İzmir

The case research aims to evalu-
ate the impacts of street art on pub-
lic spaces and to reveal how street
art changes the characteristics of the
Figure 2. Location of the cases in İzmir (Source: Adapted from
public spaces and their surroundings. Google Earth image).
The research focuses on the long term
impacts of street art practices on three
public spaces in İzmir. The research is
conducted in 2019 and 2020. The cas-
es are selected from different locations
of the city at different scales including
a corner in the public space, a neigh-
borhood in the city center and a rural
village in a coastal district. The cases
are analyzed based on the review of
the basic information about the case
locations, site observations and inter-
views with key actors.

Case 1: Fahrettin Altay Metro Station,

Üçkuyular
The first case shows how street art
conceptually changes and finds a for-
mal place in public space. It presents
an example of an informal perfor-
mance space transformed into a for-
mal artistic activity area.
Fahrettin Altay Metro Station is
located under Fahrettin Altay Square
in Üçkuyular district of İzmir. The
square is one of the major nodes and
transportation hubs of the city. The
station is adjacent to a terminal of
buses which offers connections to the
western coastal towns of the city in-
cluding Urla, Çeşme, Seferihisar and
Karaburun and to a ferry port which
enables transportation between two
sides of İzmir Bay. The station was
opened in 2014, and soon became
a place where the buskers often per- Figure 3. Busking performance at the Fahrettin Altay Metro
form. Izmir Metropolitan Municipali- Station. Before and after the regulation (Source: Photographed by
ty noticed the potential of the buskers the Author in 2020).
at the station in 2019 and decided to
create an art corner. The municipality the previous busking performances as
provided a fixed platform for buskers they perceived the buskers use of the
and registered the buskers. The plat- space untidy and uncontrolled. Some-
form was named as “Art exists in the times the beggars tried to perform
Metro” (Metroda Sanat Var). busking. Therefore, they felt that there
Before the municipality’s interven- would be theft or crime. After creating
tion, users of the metro station men- the platform some of the metro pas-
tioned that they felt uncomfortable with sengers mentioned that they enjoyed
the performances, started listening and
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 465

felt more comfortable and safe with the as car painting ateliers. However, most
busking performances (The users of the of the houses stayed abandoned and
Metro Station, personal communica- some of them became ruin. (H. Ateşçi-
tion, 2020). er, personal communication, 2020)
The security staff stated that the Today, the neighborhood hosts art-
number of the beggars decreased af- ist / artisan workshops and residents.
ter the intervention. Buskers’ response The young artist groups seeking for
to the intervention was also positive alternative spaces for their art produc-
as they thought that the intervention tion discovered Umurbey Neighbor-
changed the common perception of the hood and made the first art exhibition
passengers about the buskers (T. Gü- at street in 2016. After the exhibition,
zelsu, personal communication, 2020) the distinctiveness and creativeness of
Consequently, the number of audiences the exhibition were noticed by other
increased and indirectly it caused an in- artist groups. Number of artists at-
crease in the tips for the buskers. tending the exhibitions increased. The
The fixed platform for buskers pro- artists visited the neighborhood to
vided the sense of safety and pleasure practice their artistic activities such as
to the users and provided the sense of painting, photography, sculpture, in-
place for the artist as an income oppor- stallation, video and performance, or
tunity. The positive and dynamic effect to observe the neighborhood and even
of street art was noticed by city admin- to live in. In 2017, the number of artists
istrations. Similar with the examples of was 25, in 2018 was 30 and in 2019 was
Penang City Council (Malaysia) or the 35. The artworks attracted other artists
Municipality of Heerlen (Netherlands) into the neighborhood. Some artworks
that have been using street art as city were noticed by other professions and
policy, the Municipality of Izmir in 2019 they used the spaces as a decor of their
published the Regulation for the Imple- works, an art object or a complementa-
mentation of Street Arts in Izmir” (Izmir’ ry part of art. The increasing demand
de Sokak Sanatlarının Uygulanmasına to stay in the neighborhood also in-
Ilişkin Yönetmelik) to support and for- creased property values (C. Aksoy,
malize street art practices. personal communication, 2020). On
the other hand, as it is located just in
Case 2: Umurbey Neighborhood, Konak the center of the city, the surroundings
Umurbey Neighborhood, formerly of the neighborhood started to be re-
known as Darağaç, is an example for generated through high budget, high
the long-term impact of street art at density investments in recent years.
district level. After almost a 30 years One of the stimulating actors for
gap the district started to re-enter the those developmets in the neighbor-
urban memory with its new identity. hood was the organization of “Darağaç”,
The neighborhood was vital and live- located in the area. The organization
ly until 1985. Beside the houses there states its main goal as “to transform the
were 3 banks, 1 post office, 7 taverns, 8 neighborhood into a space where young
barbers, 2 butchers, 4 greengrocers and artists can show their work and to cre-
11 groceries in the neighborhood. The ate a common discourse; ….to encour-
neighborhood was surrounded by in- age the artists to try new methods in
dustrial uses and important transpor- the public sphere; …to transform into
tation connections of the city. Levanter, a kind of experimental city institute;
Greek and Turkish communities lived ....and to act as a reconciliation zone
together in the neighborhood. In 1980s, for the emerging artist and the public
the district started to lose its attractive- space”. (Yavuzcezzar, 2019) The exhibi-
ness as a residential area for younger tions have developed and matured with
generations. The young population of an atmosphere of intense dialogue and
the neighborhood started to move to discussion between the artists, artisans
Bostanlı, Karşıyaka and Bayraklı dis- and the residents of the neighborhood
tricts. However, the property owners (C. Aksoy, personal communication,
didn’t attempt to rent or sell their aban- 2020). Yavuzcezzar describes the atmo-
doned houses. In the 1990s, the houses sphere of the neighborhood as
started to be used as work places such “Artists having muse from their

Creating spaces for art: Long term impacts of street art in the urban context
466

neighbors along with a cup of coffee

when producing their own works of
art, asking for what they need from
the opposite window instead of over
the phone, experiencing the feeling
of being one while living together.
Paintings on the walls, neighbors sit-
ting on porches and children playing
on streets; a neighborhood with the
daily hustle and bustle of artists and
craftsmen working, that warm feel-
ing we recall from the past that always
heals us. A place where daily chit-chat
evolves into art events; where the resi-
dents are the artists, and artists are the
spectators. Collective mind and effort
that carry the spirit of the neighbor-
hood, lend an ear to the voice of the
artworks, listen to the people sharing
their thoughts,experiences, and mem-
ories between the lines. Whatever sur-
faced to the daylight from the depths
of your memory, whatever is on your
mind, whatever taste that still lingers
after reading this book – that’s what
Darağaç is.” (Yavuzcezzar, 2019)
Currently, the neighborhood pro-
vides an open space where art created
collectively through communication
and collaboration of the artists with
the residents. The streets, building fa-
cades and other public spaces are used Figure 4. Installations of Darağaç Collective in Umurbey
to exhibit the artistic practices. All the neighborhood (Source: Photographed by the Author in 2020).
neighborhood became an exhibition
area ispired from the neighborhood lage resident, Nuran Erden. She started
life. To sum up, this case reveals how an to draw traditional floral motifs on the
abandoned neighborhood was discov- walls of the village in 2009. She got reac-
ered by artists and how the new face of tions from the villagers in the beginning
the neighborhood attracted new users but then they enjoyed and asked her for
and residents to the district. painting their walls too.
“All the villagers accepted or wanted
Case 3: Germiyan Village me to paint their walls. I got positive
The case of Germiyan Village is an reactions from them. Only one person
outstanding example for long-term im- rejected and I responded as “the house
pact of street art on the settlement scale. might be yours but the wall is mine”. I
In almost ten years the village trans- am increasing its value”. (N., Erden, per-
formed its identity from a typical rural sonal communication, 2020).
character to a touristic village accom- She conceived the walls of the village
modating cultural activities. as a canvas for her artistic performances.
Germiyan Village is located within She explained that the main purpose of
the boundaries of Çeşme district. By her artworks was to attract visitors into
2019, the population of the village is the village and create an opportunity to
1290. The majority of the village pop- make them spend time in the village, so
ulation consists of the elderly. Young that to contribute to the income of the
generation had left their village for edu- residents. She aimed to revitalize the
cation or business purposes. The change village by creating new employment op-
of the village character began with the portunities and expected that the young
individual voluntary attempts of a vil- population might not leave the village.
Over time, she attracted attention of
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 467

thousands of local and foreign tourists

to the village every year.
Following the increasing popularity
of the village, two important develop-
ments further changed the village life.
One of them was the organization of
the village festival. Germiyan Village
Festival has been organized since 2015.
During the festival competitions, exhi-
bitions and workshops are held to pres-
ent the traditional and natural products
such as food, clothing and appliances.
Also old pictures of the villagers and
village life are presented. The second
important development was that the
village was assigned as the “First Slow
Food Village of Turkey” in 2016. The
villagers started to produce healthier
food and other products which con-
tributed to the village life and to the
brand of the village.
The impact of new developments
observed on land use, economic activ-
ities and property values. Village resi-
dents started to sell their home-made
products and foods and wanted to
open their homes for tourism. When
the potential of the village is realized
new restaurants and cafes are opened
in the village. Besides the property
values increased almost 6 times in ten
years in between 2010 and 2020 (Em-
lakgazete, 2010; I. Kaya, personal com-
munication, 2020). To sum up, street
art was applied successfully to create a
brand for the village and contribute to
the village economy. Through its festi-
vals, the village became further popu-
lar at national and international scales.
Figure 5. Murals of N. Erden in Germiyan village (Source:
Photographed by the Author in 2020). 4. Discussion
In İzmir cases, street art practices
many from different places and conse- transformed the public space in many
quently the village started to become ways, either positively or negatively. In
popular. In the following years the Mu- Germiyan Village and Umurbey Neigh-
nicipality of Çeşme supported the vil- borhood cases, the long-term impacts
lage with sitting and lighting furniture, were in terms of adding new land uses,
the streets were cleared and the visitors and new economic and cultural activi-
and residents of the village voluntarily ties, supporting local industries, foster-
painted the facades of the unused build- ing local tourism, increasing property
ings all of which increased the quali- values, increasing built environment
ty of public spaces in the village. With quality, changing building facades, fos-
the migration of new socio-economic tering participation, communication
groups, the population of village was in- and collaboration, regenerating the
creased, and the life of village vitalized district and renewing the image and
(N., Erden, personal communication, identity of the districts.
2020). Nuran Erden is still practicing Compared the two, Fahrettin Altay
her artworks in the village and attracts Metro Station is a smaller place where

Creating spaces for art: Long term impacts of street art in the urban context
468

less impacts are observed in the long- Table 1. Positive and negative long-term ımpacts of the case study
term. The informal practices resulted areas (Source: Author).
with a municipal attempt to form an
art spot on one part of the station. With
this attempt a new function is added
and the space is changed slightly. As
the station is a transition area short
term impacts such as providing easy
orientation for the users, surprising
the users, creating sense of safety, place
for free expression for the artists were
dominant than the long-term impacts.
One questionable issue about street
art is its regeneration impact. It has the
potential of transforming the public
spaces and the districts in which those
spaces are located, not only in terms of
physical appearance and special expe-
rience but also in terms of creating new
economies and changing the social life.
While upgrading the economy and the
built environment quality, it also holds
the risks of displacement of the resi-
dents due to increasing property val-
ues and losing the local characteristics.
This might be the case in Germiyan observed in all three cases in İzmir.
Village and Umurbey Neighborhood. However, street art stands against be-
On the other hand, Umurbey Neigh- coming formal. While regulated form
borhood is already under the pressure of street art gives the users of the pub-
of gentrification because of the invest- lic spaces a sense of safety and makes
ments taking place in the surround- the public spaces more comfortable for
ing areas and street art has an attitude them, on the other hand being regulat-
against gentrification to conserve the ed and ruled, is not accepted by some
neighborhood identity. However, be- of the street artists. The free space that
cause of new residents including artist provides inspiration, creativeness feeds
groups and new artistic image of the the artist and society.
district, it may again result with anoth-
er kind of regeneration. In that sense 5. Conclusion
street art may become a tool to foster Studies that have been conducted so
regeneration and as well as a reaction far show that street art has a potential to
against it. help to transform the public place. Street
Street art’s contribution to the econ- art directly or indirectly affect the physi-
omy through tourism is also question- cal space and the activities and users of
able. Attracting visitors to the district the space. The effects differ according to
and creating new commercial and cul- temporal dimensions and scale of the
tural areas contribute to the district to public space. While in the short-term
an extent. Tourism is a fragile sector the impacts are mostly associated with
affected from crisis easily. Tourism can the user perception on spatial quality, in
contribute to the settlement if it sup- the long-term, the impacts are related
ports local characteristics and identity with the changes in physical, social and
rather than replacing them. economic structure.
Another issue to be discussed is the This article focuses on the long-term
status of the street art. Street art may impacts of street art on public space.
be transformed from informal perfor- Long-term impacts can be summa-
mances to formal practices thanks to rized as changes in physical appear-
its acceptance by the community and ance, built environment quality, land
public authorities’ attempts to support use; changes in social life including the
and benefit from its potential. This was community activities and residents of
the neighborhood or the district and
ITU A|Z • Vol 19 No 2 • July 2022 • E. Kolçak, N. Kaya Erol
 469

users of the public place; and changes expression and having fed by social
in economic structure including the events, street art gains a cultural di-
economic activities and land values. mension. It helps to create culture and
These changes, in turn, may affect or spaces for culture. Street art, similar to
change the image and identity of the art in general, is perceived differently
public space and the districts that those by the individuals and the societies.
spaces are located in. Moreover, street Perceived either positively or negative-
art itself may be transformed from in- ly, street art can be an effective tool to
formal practices to formal practices. create spaces for artistic performances
The long-term positive impacts of and to provide creative working and
street art are generally observed with living environment for the artists.
the case studies. However, considering
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