FRAMEWORK

In this workshop the terms RUPTURE and FLOW represent strategies for radical change through design. We will investigate existing municipal systems and urban dynamics of a contested city to find opportunities for new spatial, hierarchical, or functional interventions.

The dynamics of urban landscapes offer ideal conditions for deploying the strategies of RUPTURE and FLOW. The characteristics of landscape – like temporality, ephemerality, and exchange – mean that transformation is existentially fundamental. The components of landscape – like space, surface, edge, program – provide the means for defining the specific operations of RUPTURE and FLOW.

Both RUPTURE and FLOW signify transformation from a primary state – RUPTURE suggests profound change through rapid transformation that influences its context. FLOW suggests incremental change through select reorganization that is influenced by its context. We will harness the properties of RUPTURE and FLOW to propose positive changes to Nicosia’s truncated, contradictory, and sometimes conflicted layers of urban fabric.

CONTESTED LANDSCAPE

Nicosia’s landscape is “contested” in a number of ways. 1) The city is claimed by two countries and two cultures, each with their own traditions, histories, and perspectives about Cyprus. 2) The city’s operations, both public and private, are influenced by the longstanding United Nations Peacekeeping presence. 3) The city is a palimpsest – where the contemporary city is shaped by multiple stratum with sometimes-conflicting spatial orientation.

This workshop is the third in a series of three workshops entitled, Projects for Uncertain Scenarios. In this case the uncertainty includes the tenuous geopolitical partitioning of the island of Cyprus, the degree of resilience of the human habitats on a largely temperate island, and the future challenges associated with dramatic climate change.

PROCESS

We will use the established framework of RUPTURE and FLOW to comprehend Nicosia’s built environment and to establish project design protocols and parameters. Our field work will focus on identifying potential territories for design intervention. Subsequent workshop analysis will augment the field work and will serve as key sources for our semester-long investigations to develop fourteen urban-scale design proposals.

Participants will conduct initial analysis in groups of two, and will collaborate with the larger studio cohort as needed. The remainder of the semester will be devoted to individual design research and project development.

SCOPE

Project narratives were developed in a manner that synthesizes the heritage, culture, infrastructure, and ecological systems in this specific built environment. Design process were informed by gaining and applying knowledge about a range of issues: 1) The characteristics of Rupture and Flow in terms of urban site issues;

2) Reconciliation of the diverse urban layers, patterns, systems in Nicosia; 3) Geo-political and global economic context of Cyprus; 4) Global climatic trends and the means of maintaining viable human habitats on a temperate Mediterranean island; 5) Urban design trends for the 21st Century.

SITES: The workshop project territory were situated within the Republic of Cyprus-controlled, southern half of Nicosia, and developed at an urban scale. Participants relied on the workshop framework, field work experiences, local experts, and contextual analysis to determine appropriate project sites and scopes.

Video produced by Shuang Mao