Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN AND PLANNING, cilt.2, sa.1, ss.1-25, 2024 (Hakemli Dergi)
Since the 1990s, urban regeneration projects have become important intervention mechanisms in European and American cities, dealing with decaying urban areas with physical and social problems and disinvestment. In the past four decades, the consequences of these urban regeneration projects have been closely studied and their limitations have been made public through the publications of academics throughout the world. Their studies revealed that to create successful urban regeneration projects, rather than top-down implementations, more inclusive and participatory schemes should be implemented. It is also acknowledged as an important fact that tourism-led urban regeneration projects should incorporate the themes of authenticity and local culture by including the local community and their actors. While most of the documented research has focused on the developed countries’ experiences, there are relatively few studies looking at the case studies in the developing countries of the African continent. In the case of Libreville in Gabon, urban regeneration incorporating urban tourism and authenticity seems to be one of the solutions to both manage finances and structurally improve urban spaces and urban structures. Therefore, our work analyses the King’s Bay waterfront regeneration project in Libreville, completed in August 2022, with reference to the public participation and authenticity by conducting online surveys with the local community. A total of 1009 surveys were answered by the locals, and the results show that despite the huge literature produced by the scholars in the other parts of the world, in the more singular King’s Bay urban regeneration project authoritarian and top-down approaches of the local authorities were observed by ignoring the local community’s views with reference to public participation. In the article the consequences of this approach are going to be discussed by disclosing the survey results.