Supporting Pedieos river's commons in Federal Cyprus
Tutors: Socrates Stratis, Melina Philippou, Anastasia Angelidou, Miriam Garcia
2019-20
The urban design studio addresses the role of architecture as urban practice in contested urban fragmented environments. This year’s studio explores synergies between urban design and landscape architecture that support the emerging Urban Commons of the Pedieos River with the scenario of the island’s (re) unification under a Federal Cyprus model. The students examined the river’s territory, whose ecological richness is reduced and its publicness shrunk. The ongoing division
of the island and the dominating urban sprawl are the causes. More specifically, the students have explored the role of urban design in creating intermediate landscapes along the Pedieos River. They proposed to transform infrastructures into intermediate landscapes that may address the impacts of climate change and the urban everydayness of the (re)unified island. The proposed intermediate landscapes collectively create conditions to address the increasing risks of flooding and desertification. At the same time, they offer opportunities for creating public infrastructures attributing a new role to Pedieos River vis-à-vis Nicosia and the island.
Who Owns the Industrial Land
Team: Ermioni Anastasiadi, Ioanna Cheimona, Olymbia Chatzistylianou, Rosie Rouseva
The project designs a network of ad-hoc public and collective spaces both at the edges and within the current industrial area of Nicosia Mia Milia. The first aim is to create awareness among the city’s inhabitants regarding the current polluted ground. The project offers various maps that document the areas with different degrees of contamination by the ongoing industrial activities that identify areas with raw materials for reuse. The second aim is to support the area’s inhabitants to resist the potential expansion of the two industrial areas after the city’s unification. It is a support structure for the inhabitants to claim and construct their collective spaces. The project transforms the main road that separates the industrial area from Mia Milia village into an ecological armature that supports the adhoc public and collective spaces network.
Transfarming
Team: Dimitra Kallinou, Dora Andreou, Eleni Elia,Fotini Petrou, Mary Mavrohanna
The “Trans-farming” project concerns resilient landscapes and ecological strategies to create an alternative neighbourhood model. The project’s goal is to minimize the impact of the current desertification of the area by proposing new neighbourhoods based on spatial and economic relationships between agriculture, living and re-forestation areas at Mia Milia, along the Pedieos River. “Trans-farming” addresses issues of current pollution as well as uncontrolled cultivation and sprawled urbanization. It contributes to circular economies by providing spatial arrangements for living and working, improving food production and offering means to improve the life quality of poor farming households. The project formulates protocols and urban strategies to support the everydayness of the current and future inhabitants of Mia Milia area. They will be both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots with the scenario of the island’s reunification. The protocols offer ways to govern water supply, create urban/rural typologies that create new relations between agriculture and living, and delimit the pollution of the current industrial activities.
