Suchergebnisse

It is a very common sight in many cities of the world to have in a material or immaterial form some sort of walls. Defense walls still exist in cities, being gradually integrated in the urban fabric and the public infrastructure, however other types of limits have emerged in the last centuries. Political division lines or socioeconomic limits divide contemporary cities. The example of Nicosia is taken as a case study. An intersection of different types of urban limits is met in the case of the divided capital. Starting from the 16th century when the medieval walls were built, the city is marked with different types of urban limits with the last one being the buffer zone, a neglected no man's land that divides the island's north and southern part. The space between the limits is slowly decaying trapped in the moment of division while the urban fabric that surrounds it keeps changing. To think of an afterlife for these spaces requires to be viewed from a different perspective, the underutilization, the collapsing ruins of past should not be perceived as a dead corpse waiting for rebirth but as the main element for any possible regeneration process. The proposal uses the theory of field conditions as the background on which it is articulated. The same elements that define each of the limits become the primary design strategies. The theory developed by Stan Allen aims in generalizing any spatial matrix capable of unifying diverse elements while respecting the identity of each. Thus the buffer zone becomes the site of intervention, in an attempt to become again a vital part for the city, the chaotic differences and the diversity of elements that form Nicosia today can be the solution to its division. ; Award-winning