Development of the Construction Sector in Turkey

Development of the Construction Sector in Turkey

The first important steps in the field of construction started in Ankara in the first years of the Republic. despite all the difficulties in the city, lack of transportation and materials, a reconstruction activity was started in accordance with the traditional building style of the environment. The materials used were primitive materials such as wood, adobe, coarsely chipped stone.

 

The first construction activities of this period were seen in road constructions in the transportation sector. However, the lack of trained technical staff caused the work to be carried out for a while in foreign companies, specialists and consultancy.

 

Until the 1960s, the construction sector gained a great momentum thanks to the investments of the organizations that made investments with the support of the state.

 

After 1950, the rate of urbanization started to increase, housing presentation forms and institutional structures could not meet the housing needs required by the speed of urbanization. A solution to the problem was sought through political views in the multi-party period, and after the establishment of the Ministry of Housing and Settlement in 1958, it was given to this Ministry to find solutions to housing and urbanization problems.

 

While the development of the Construction and Contracting Sector gained momentum in this period, Turkey’s entry into NATO in 1952 increased its infrastructure investments and gave companies the chance to both work with foreigners and gain experience and to have a machine park at low costs. This situation continued until the crisis of the state economy in the late 1970s.

 

Due to the economic problems experienced in 1979 and 1980, fundamental changes were made in the name of economic policies. As a result of these changes, the construction sector reached high growth data between 1980-1987 compared to previous years.

 

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the fact that it was replaced by many new states attracted the attention of Turkish companies and created new international market opportunities.

 

The economic crisis that occurred in the domestic market in 2001 had a greater impact on the appearance of Turkish construction companies in international markets. Construction activities, which were not attractive in the domestic market, have become attractive in international markets. According to the research conducted by the Turkish Contractors Association (TMB), developments in the sector have occurred as a result of economic growth.

 

The construction sector, which started to grow since 2004, experienced a record growth in 2005. The construction sector was the fastest growing sector in 2005 with a total growth rate of 21.5%. The sector continued its growth rate in 2006 and 2007 as a result of positive developments, and this situation continued until the 2008 economic crisis. In the last ten years, excluding the crisis years 2008-2009, the construction sector has grown by 11%.

In recent years, the construction industry, which has signed important projects such as Istanbul Airport, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, Eurasia Tunnel, Istanbul Finance Center and Gebze-Izmir Highway, has entered into a growth and development process again with the cooperation of the public-private sector.

The Effects and Contribution of The Technological Developments to the Construction Sector

The Effects and Contribution of The Technological Developments to the Construction Sector

Even though most of us think about smartphones, computers, TVs, video communication systems when we talk about technology, we can say that especially in the last 20-30 years, technology has made significant progress in every aspect of life. As HEMA Construction family, we will be talking about the effects of technology on construction and project planning and what did technology improve in this article.

As we have mentioned at the beginning of this article, most of us first think about smartphones and computers when we talk about technology. From this perspective, we can say that the difference between computers in terms of project planning and design is as distinctive as the difference between black and white. Before all else, drafting that were made on tracing paper (you can search the material on search engines) and technical drawing pens which are now replaced with software drafting To explain for those who do not know, if you made any mistake with tracing paper and technical drawing pens, you need to erase the mistake by scraping with a razor. If you tore the tracing paper when you were scraping, all the work would be gone. You had to draw from the beginning. But today it is far from this. With technical drafting software (the most popular and functional drafting software is AutoCAD), you can make as much mistake as you like, decide the color and thickness just in seconds and do your technical drafting. In addition to 2-D drafting, you can draft and design in 3-D as well and you can reflect the almost realistic form on the paper with visualization programs. This way, employers can clearly see what will happen at the end, make decisions accordingly and this way, all possible surprises at the end of the job are prevented.

In terms of construction, concrete manufactured in concrete plants and poured with concrete pumps replaced concrete mixers; cranes replaced manual work to carry all the materials to the top floors and cutting and bending with machines replaced manually cut structural iron. While we can give more examples, all of them have the same effects and results in general: “Faster construction with less labor.” In terms of construction, we can see that there have been improvements not only in terms of labor but also in terms of concrete quality, strike formwork, soil surveys and many other things.

We will all wait and see what new technologies will be added to the technological developments that we have mentioned above. When the developments in recent years are considered, it is possible to say that even some of the methods that we use today will be “old” in just a few years.

Civil Engineer Education and Career

Civil Engineer Education and Career

Most probably everyone in high school who wants to go to university has questions such as “what does this occupation do” and/or “what will I do if I choose these departments”.  As HEMA family, we prepared this article to help young individuals who plan to choose or heard about civil engineering from people around them. After reading this article, we would like to wish good luck to our young friends who want to study civil engineering.

The main topic of this article will try to answer “what will I end up with if I study civil engineering?” question. To do that, we first need to talk about university courses in civil engineering and main fields. Actually, it is possible to say that civil engineering is divided into 8 main fields. If we can list these fields as:

  • Reinforced concrete structures
  • Wood and steel structures
  • Transportation
  • Building materials
  • Soil mechanics
  • Mechanics
  • Hydraulic
  • Construction management

While the naming and grouping may vary in other resources, the general framework is this. Both courses from these fields and general engineering courses (mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, statistics, economy etc.) are given to the students in their undergraduate life and the main purpose for these courses is to help civil engineers to cope with all types of problems they might face in life. Civil engineers will face problems related to almost all fields above and they are expected to solve these problems. You might be asking, “how can I almost perfectly know all of these?” or you might say “don’t exaggerate it”. Of course, you can’t know everything perfectly but as an engineer, knowing where the solution will be even though you do not know everything perfectly will be more than half of the solution.

If we talk about the work-life in addition to education, there are various work fields as we can see from the main field above. It is possible to start as a field engineer in construction sites and rise to project managers or start as technical office engineer in technical offices and rise to technical office chief and work in these fields. In addition to these, working in the public sector or as academics in the universities are among other alternatives. We will be sharing detailed information and our options in the following articles.

2020 Construction Sector Overview

2020 Construction Sector Overview

2019 was all about trade wars and technological disputes around the world. The effects of this cold war on the global economy sometimes resulted in stagnation and sometimes in regression. The construction sector had its share from this economic effect. The construction sector is a locomotive sector for Turkey. Any sectoral effect can influence the general economy and create a butterfly effect. In 2019, the construction sector in Turkey managed to preserve the growth potential. This was enough to keep our hopes for the beginning of 2020. The fluctuation in foreign currency in the 3rd quarter of 2019 lead to movement in the construction sector and increased the real-estate sales to foreigners. The real-estate sales to foreigners increased by 18.9% compared to the same period of 2018. Even in COVID and pandemic conditions, the predictions show that real-estate sales to foreigners will not decrease by the end of 2020. The current geographical location of our country creates a positive effect to make the country an attraction center. Although there is stagnation in the domestic market, it seems like the construction sector will continue to thrive with the real-estate sales to foreigners. The long-term look of the construction sector preserves the high potential. The demand for housing does not decrease due to migration wave and increasing population. When the current housing stock is considered, there has been a movement in house sales with government incentives. The know-how flow from our country to East European and African countries continues to increase. It is believed that the construction sector will have a more modern look with the young and dynamic civil engineers in our country. AI and robots in the construction sector enable different occupations to produce together. We believe that we will have a more permanent, modern and technologic vibe by minimizing the standard deviation and error possibilities.