A Multi-Site, Multi-Year Case Study of Container Cities After the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes: Spatial Organization, Service Provision, and Operational Evolution

The 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes led to 428 container cities housing over 700,000 displaced people. How settlements at this scale are organized, serviced and governed across their operating life remains largely unexamined. This study follows five container cities between 2023 and 2025, combining longitudinal observation of one site with cross-sectional comparison of four others, using field observation and interviews with ten settlement administrators and their staff. Three operational phases were distinguished by observable shifts in provision, maintenance, resident adaptation and occupancy: establishment, stabilization and transition. The governing directive regulates establishment but sets no criteria for sustaining or withdrawing provision, leaving the transition phase effectively ungoverned. Services were reduced on an administrative timetable while settlements remained substantially occupied. Layouts lacked the designed public and outdoor space that carries a settlement beyond unit provision. Residents’ capacity to adapt outdoor space grew as provision fell, while their capacity to take part in decisions was absent at every phase. Comparable shortfalls appear in earlier responses in Japan, Haiti and Türkiye, suggesting they follow from how temporary settlement is conceived rather than any single response. Planning for the full operational lifecycle would make temporary settlement support a sustainable recovery.