“Hands off my house” warns a home-made sign on an historic dwellings in the old part of Istanbul are still standing – but for how long? The residents are worried, to say the least.   Korhan Gumus is an architect. He is also involved with Istanbul’s year as capital of culture 2010. His involvement with the legacy of historic sites dates back 30 years. He is also a well-known civic campaigner. “Our cultural heritage should not prohibit development. On the contrary, we need to replicate it to ensure sustainable development.” As a veteran of the wars of cultural preservation, Gümüs is not surprised that Istanbul is currently at risk of losing its 25-year-status as a Unesco World Heritage Site. The situation hasn’t come about overnight. Campaigners angry at the uncontrolled urbanisaion, particularly in the old town, began rolling up their sleeves back in 2008: “This is something which can’t be measured in terms of money, and that is cultural heritage. And, symbolically, Istanbul being downgraded by Unesco would be a disaster, in a way. Because many people would exploit this and so I think it’s an uphill battle.” said Cengiz Aktar, a professor of European Studies and a leading campaigner. October is the deadline. That is when the UN has told Turkey to produce a report on the environmental impact of its development work. Otherwise it will lose its world heritage status and go onto the endangered list. The restoration of Fener and Balat is a prime project. At the beginning of the last century there were 100 thousand tradtional wooden dwellings here – now there are only 2000. “Instead of restoring this valuable examples of traditional Istanbul housing, the council is now developing projects to build what look like new ottoman-style homes, but they are just putting up wooden facades to cover the concrete.” explains campaigner Orhan Sillier. A pilot project backed by Unesco and the EU got underway in Fener and Balat six years ago. Ten million euros...