Infrastructure for counter - militarization: supporting the urban commons in the Meridian city Cyprus
Tutors: Socrates Stratis, Pelin Tan
2018-19
The Urban Design Studio investigates the support to the commons through the formulation of urban infrastructures that claim the current military camps of the island in the scenario of Cyprus’ (re)unification. The studio focuses on Meridian City. It is the name given by Socrates Stratis to the region that expands roughly along the 33rd east meridian (line of longitude), connecting Kyrenia with Larnaca areas passing through Nicosia. The Meridian city will most probably be the outcome of a neoliberal urbanization process likely to be the urban reconstruction of the island, already taking place along two areas separated by the UN Buffer zone. The first one starts from the north part of Nicosia and ends at the Kyrenia coastal area. In contrast, the second connects the southern part of Nicosia with its airport at the Larnaca coastal area further south. The UD studio speculates on alternative urban futures of Meridian City. The infrastructure for counter-militarization transforms the actual military camps of the Meridian City into nodes of co-production for the Meridian inhabitants. It creates alternatives to the increasing militarization of the island as well as to the dominating neoliberal laisser-faire model of urban development. The infrastructure for counter-militarization is about production activities that operate as trojan horses for the urban commons. It provides new proximities between living and producing by enhancing new sharing and accessibility urban patterns. Plus, it encourages new modes of urban porosity and mobility. The students have collectively mapped the military infrastructures of Meridian City with the help of LUCY (Laboratory of Urbanism, University of Cyprus) and AA&U. They have focused on the Turkish military areas near Kythrea and Ayios Epiktitos. The students designed strategies and tactics based on new modes of agriculture, energy production, logistics and mobility. They support the imaginary Meridian civil society to reclaim the military camps. The design hypothesis is that transforming the military areas into co-production activities will engender a network of open collectives across the territory of Meridian City, starting from Kyrenia to Larnaca. Open collectives help exchange among heterogeneous public members beyond the dominating binary of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The students’ projects consist of multi-scalar strategies and tactics that link the neighbourhood with the Meridian region through new synergies between landscapes and networks. Some of the projects provide guides that could be used for an ongoing claim to transform the Turkish military camps and the Greek Cypriot ones into infrastructures for the urban commons.
Common Gardens
Team: Anna Loizou, Elena Stavrou, Georgia Demetriadou
The “Common Gardens” project is the shared space for Meridian city’s inhabitants. The “Common Gardens” provide a framework for collective living and farming for inhabitants of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Apartments, houses, and arable parcels of land become part of a cooperative exchange to resolve the current conflict of property rights caused by the forced displacement of the 1974 war with Turkey. The degree of conviviality is chosen by the incomers who may live in apartments with shared communal spaces. The public spaces are interweaved with the agriculture parcels providing a heterogeneous grid-like tissue of collective living and farming. The “Common Gardens” project also comes in the form of a board game where the players choose their profile and degree of conviviality.
Oxytocin
Team: Constantina Isaak, Louiza Irodotou, Petros Christou, Vasiliki Motsiou
The project supports the counter-militarization of Meridian city, where the military camps are being evacuated, and a new world is created in their place. The project encourages accessibility in the urban fabric based on synergies, spaces, social interaction and well-being. Introducing a new kind of production, such as mussel production, together with new public spaces and living, may enhance the accessibility of various public of Meridian city. This production will act as a trojan horse to bring much more than mere mussels, serving as a threshold for Meridian city. Besides being a trojan horse, the project interrelates diverse ecologies to form a new territorial entity. While the project relates to a specific site, that of Kythrea, its strategies apply to similar areas. Hence, it will be possible to use the same logic in more sites and help in the counter-militarization of more territories.
Re-connection line
Team: Angelos Xenofontos, Kalomira Xychilou, Marina Matheou, Pavlou Sofocleous
The “Re-connection Line” project proposes new collective spaces as a new form of inhabitation of the former military camps, hand in hand with a network of organic waste treatment facilities. The proposed Meridian tram/train line strategically connects the most critical former military sites where new residential neighbourhoods are located, expanding the existing villages. The new neighbourhoods are connected to the existing communities, with the main road serving as a shared public activity thread. The collective governance of the organic waste treatment facility invites all inhabitants to collaborate. The urban blocks, as well as the building typologies, are adjusted to accommodate both living and production.
Time healing earth carpet
Team: Despina Kouppa, Stefania Kotsia
The project examines four military camps, two in the north and two in the southern parts of Cyprus. The heavy artillery use in the area under study has contaminated the soil and decayed the natural ecosystems in decay. Hence, the main project aim is to establish devices of de-pollution to clean the soil through phytoremediation and restore the balance of the ecosystem. At the same time, the project introduces biomass production and various kinds of public activities in the areas to be gradually restored. The “Time Healing Earth Carpet” project is a prototype of de-pollution that should take place in all former military areas prior to their reuse. The process of de-pollution gets a collective turn to encourage the commons of Meridian City. Each site’s de-pollution is broken down into three stages, five years apart. After the implementation of each stage, the de-polluted areas are ready for new public activities. Even before the end of the first stage, a phyto-part and bike routes can be installed. “Time Healing Earth Carpet” is a physical restoration project and a monetary exchange model since it introduces a new type of currency that can benefit from biomass production and the income of the new activities.
Plan bee
Team:
Following Blue Networks
Team:
Our proposal is the scenario that Turkey stops sending water to the northern part of Cyprus, and that how we decided to take advantage of water from the sea and from the sky with the help of our thematic which is 'sharing'. The way we did that was to insert a desalination centre in Agios Epiktitos with the company of several camping fields and cultivation areas surrounded by housing in Kythrea. The one exploits sea water and the other rainwater respectively.
The strategies we followed where the same in both cases and could be applied to the most military camps in the meridian city. First step is to recognize the characteristics of the area such as existing infrastructures footprints, green area and networks. Then we set a central space - more likely between the existing infrastructures - where big scale production is located and then develop public spaces and housing in a circular way.
In Agios Epiktitos case our central space is the main desalination building and in Kythrea's case is the main cultivation field. Neighbourhood scale is getting organised with the stragety of a 'troyan horse'. The two areas we focus on are connected with a water network (pipe) that goes through Kefalovrisos source. When the rainwater we collect in Kythrea is not enough for the neighborhood's needs we use desalination water so we have a complementarity relationship between the two.
