Seka Industrial Heritage Zone Urban Renewal Project

Seka Cellulose and Paper Factory, is one of the first complexes built as part of the industrialization activities performed by the government in early Republican Period. Seka Paper Factory which increased its capacity till 1980s in the area bordered by the D-100 freeway on the north, the gulf and the Marmara Sea in the south, became unable to compete with the private paper producers in 90s and closed in 2005. After the shut down, the existing Seka estate’s all stuctural items from building reserves to circulation areas wore off. The Seka Factory other than being the first factory obtaining paper production in the country, has been an important enterprice in the city in terms of culture, arts, sports and education. The time passed since Seka’s foundation till its occlusion, a historical duration of a faciliy holds important traces of political/sociological stands of the public and government that generates this duration. The factory exhibits the “soul of space and time” with concrete traces in its place. The Seka Factory, has a physically important potential in the city. Because it is located in the city center and in the sea shore, it will be highly accessible with a systematical transportation and it will improve the citizen-water relationship in the city of Kocaeli where city-shore connection is weak. The fact that the region is an archeologically protected area and has a lot of certified factory buildings facilitates to make it a focus point for the city evaluating the whole area culturally, archeologically and as natural heritage. It has the quality of both being an activiy area in the urban area that large organizations can occur as well as an urban park with its green texture. The Seka Factory which is has been a stepping stone for Kocaeli;one of Turkey’s most important industrial cities today, to industrialize, is also important as it is the first project prepared for the recontribution of early Republican Period industrial facilities to urban life. Regarding the potential of the land of both Kocaeli and Seka Factory as a whole, the only way that the city can contribute to the factory land and the factory land to the city is to redesign this as part of the city and to reopen this facility endlessly to the city. The vehicle roads that are close to the land and can be connected with the historical axis which is semi-pedestrian and a walk away from the city center, and the old train station, that also provide the east-west direction of the city transportation should be linked to the factory land which is near the metrobus and cableway projects that are near the ferry dock and the new train station and in operation now, with basic interventions and should be open to pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Thus the factory land which will become an area that can be walk through, will not be an area identifiable with the borders of the untouchable factory buildings that have become museum objects inside. It will bring life both to its environment and to itself inside. It will evolve into an area that can be stepped on everywhere with its provocative factory buildings, a part of city that’s boundaries have been lifted in everyway. The improvement of the concrete physical condition of the factory operation by preserving the quality of the place will both protect the city memory and also will make the place an active tool in the transfer of this memory. All of the land of the Seka Factory have a high potential because of its archeological character. The archeological findings that were documented during the construction of the 1. Paper Factory and the archeological relics that are visible in the land suggests that rich archeological findings can be reached with a study done in the whole factory land. The valuable findings that belong to the city of Nicomedia, an important center of Roman Empire, will create a crucial archeological attraction point near the city center in relationship to the shore use area and on the edges of the transportation network stations. The refunctioning of the factory buildings with projects like the paper museum, science museum and other cultural uses will increase the use of the whole area. However the structural characters and the space partitions of the existing buildings are not suitable to take on every function that has been assigned. Locating specific functions to the factory buildings will not only wear away the buildings during the transformation and usage period but also cause losing the traces regarding the peculiar functions of the buildings. To get over this pessimism, to organize the undefined voids that were generated by the destruction of the settlement character of the factory area as a result of the demolition, and to repair these structural voids , new buildings have to built in order to create focuses that will generate an attractive tension between Seka land and the city center. The multi-purpose room that will house events like large meetings, introductions and celebrations, The mediatech which will be an attraction point for the young educated population of the city, Experimental Archeology Area Service Building which will wittness the rich archeological past of the city, Institute Buildings which will help corporations reach their improvement goals that the city has set upon itself based upon innovation, studios, lodging facilities and a city museum that will be themed upon Kocaeli and Seka, will create the dynamic tension. Moreover,considering the inner dynamics of the factory area and the Seka Park Project that has been built on the shore as a whole, the improvement of the existing exercise areas will create the urban dynamicism again like it used to back when it founded and be a second trigger for the city.