Setback

A setback, called çekme mesafesi in Turkish zoning, is the distance a building must keep back from its plot boundaries. It is defined separately as the front garden distance on the street side, side garden distances and the rear garden distance. The line these distances form is known as the building line (yapı yaklaşma sınırı), and apart from exceptions allowed by the regulations the building may not cross it.

What sets the distances

The values come from the zoning plan, its notes and the zoning regulation. The building arrangement (detached, attached or block), the street width, the building height and the plot’s position can all affect the result. In attached arrangements no side garden is left on the shared side, while on corner plots both street-facing sides may be treated as fronts. The exact values for each plot are given on its zoning certificate.

On site and in images

Setbacks are drawn on the site plan and marked out on the ground at the start of construction. Garden walls, entrances, parking ramps and landscaping are all planned within these bands. In exterior renders, how close the building sits to the street, how deep the garden is and how much space separates it from its neighbours only look convincing when these distances are modelled correctly. We cover what matters when setting up an exterior scene in our exterior architectural visualization guide.