Pretense Design and the Erosion of Urban Memory: Second-Skin Façades and Placelessness on Izmir Road, Bursa
SAGE OPEN, cilt.16, sa.3, ss.1-19, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 16 Sayı: 3
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1177/21582440261467949
- Dergi Adı: SAGE OPEN
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO), Social Science Premium Collection (ProQuest), Education Source Ultimate (EBSCO), Scopus, Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Education Abstracts, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), EBSCO Education Source, Directory of Open Access Journals
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-19
- Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This article investigates the proliferation of ‘second-skin’ façades to understand their role as instruments of consumer culture within the urban built environment. The purpose of this study is to theorise how these micro-scale architectural interventions transform urban surfaces and to analyse their potential impact on urban memory and place identity. The employment of a novel theoretical framework, Pretense Design, which synthesises Baudrillard’s simulacra, Debord’s spectacle and Zukin’s Disneyfication, in conjunction with a visual-spatial case study of Izmir Road in Bursa, Turkey, serves as the foundation for this study. The study posits that second-skin façades function as branded billboards. The fracturing of the urban palimpsest, the erosion of collective memory, and the production of a state of placelessness are theoretically inferred as active processes. The findings reveal a central paradox: these façades mimic urban dynamism while simultaneously freezing place-identity into a static, consumable commodity, thereby potentially erasing the layered histories that constitute a meaningful urban fabric. This process establishes a plausible link between micro-aesthetic practices and macro-processes of socio-spatial alienation. The article concludes that this ‘transformation by design’ may sacrifice authentic place-making for consumable imagery, but also acknowledges that these claims require further empirical testing. In response, it calls for a radical rethink of urban policy and design philosophy, advocating for regulations and approaches that resist commodification by prioritising embodied memory, contextual continuity, and authentic place-making over simulated, brandable identity.