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This article addresses the perspectives of residents or former residents of gecekondus who, in the processes of urban transformation, have moved to housing estates of high-rise blocks built either by public or private developers. Through the respondents’ narratives of the gecekondu as experienced and remembered, emerges the sharp contrast between the positive meanings attributed to the gecekondu by their residents and the negative meanings attributed to it in the hegemonic discourse in society. In the recent practices of the transformation of gecekondu neighborhoods into apartment districts, the exchange value of the gecekondu tends to overshadow its use value. Yet the desire for the gecekondu life preserves its importance for gecekondu people.