Beyond Non-Place: Process Space and the Uneven Articulation of Urban Meaning in Bursa’s Historic Fabric

This article examines how non-place conditions emerge within historic urban fabrics and introduces process space as an analytical framework. While Augé associates non-place with supermodern infrastructures, this study argues that historically saturated environments generate comparable conditions through a distinct mechanism: the uneven articulation of conceived, perceived, and lived space. Drawing on a case study of Bursa’s Yeşil–Setbaşı axis, a historically layered urban fabric linking major heritage anchors through a differentiated network of connective streets, the research combines field observation, photographic documentation, and behavioral mapping across 12 visits. Findings reveal a marked contrast between heritage anchors, where stopping, encounter, and appropriation recur, and adjacent connective streets, where these practices remain weak. The analysis identifies two process-space configurations—practice-led and conservation-led—reflecting different mechanisms, not developmental stages. Process space is thus conceptualized as a contingent, relational, and reversible configuration rather than a transitional stage between non-place and place. Distinguishing heritage conservation from heritage continuity, the article shows that preservation alone does not sustain urban meaning, thereby extending the concept of non-place beyond supermodern mobility.