Dia logues_ Italy + ARC @UNic Cyprus DLGS_IT&ARC
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Contents
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Italian Design Day
5 introductions 9
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Cyprus to Italy
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2 March 2017
Italian Design Day
Introduction
Italian Embassy
Forward The making of Italian design encourages a fusion of cultures that is one of the finest outputs of globalization; it fosters not only manufacturing processes but also intercultural dialogue. The concept behind designer objects have shaped a sort of universal language that tells stories about people who have every day, in every country, the same trivial needs for lamps and chairs, pots and bicycles, and so forth.
The Embassy of Italy is very pleased to partner with the Department of Architecture of the University of Nicosia for the Cypriot chapter of the “Italian Design Day”, a major event showcasing the excellence of Italian design all over the world. Promoted by the Italian Government in collaboration with the famous design and art museum “La Triennale di Milano”, it will consist of a series of events held in 100 cities on the same day, Thursday 2nd March 2017.
What On the same day, in 100 locations around the world, 100 “ambassadors” of Italian culture (designers, entrepreneurs, journalists, critics, communicators, teachers...) will illustrate the concept of excellence.
The Cyprus event, which will take place at the Amphitheatre of the Architecture and Research Center (ARC) of the University of Nicosia, also aims at celebrating the numerous connections between Italy and Cyprus in the fields of architecture and interior and furniture design.
How The ways and means of design, habits, processes and more are examined in a panel discussion with top names from the world of education, information and trade. These “ambassadors” are asked to point to areas of excellence in the country they have visited (crafts, technological innovation, construction techniques, materials etc.) and share them, seeing if they can lead to new ideas and influences. The worldwide Design Day will not end with the panel discussion, for at each venue there will be a 24-hour marathon in which participants will be able to watch other events’ live streaming and recordings, made with smartphones. The panel discussion will open with a video, which will show how the project has been created and prepared. All the selected materials will go onto a special site and onto a number of social media channels, forming a huge treasure trove of Italian design experiences. This will be expanded over the years and will always be available for viewing from anywhere in the world.
Our special guest from Italy, selected by “La Triennale” as “Ambassador of Italian Design” to Cyprus, is Architect and Designer Tommaso Fantoni, founder in Milan of TOMOarchitects and descendant of the famous Italian designer Osvaldo Borsani. His presentation “Italian Design, from Atelier to Factory, from Local to National then Global” illustrates the origins and development of the furniture production in the District of Brianza (Milan hinterland) through the fascinating story of his grand-father’s family business, which grew from an artisanal atelier to an organized factory and, finally, to a widely recognized international brand with a strong distribution network and collaborations with prestigious architects and designers like Foster, Rogers, Boffil, Ambasz. The talk will be followed by a roundtable discussion with Cypriot architects and designers which have ties to Italy, offering also a chance for interaction with students and the general public. We also asked for the participation of prominent importers and retailers of Italian designer products – from furniture, to home-deco, to automobiles and scooters – because they greatly contribute to the notoriety of Italian Design here in Cyprus.
After This major event will be repeated on 2 March 2018 further expanding the selection of areas of production and excellence. 2018 will also see a major exhibition of objects, which will take into consideration the experience and materials accumulated in the previous edition, and any synergies they might have led to.
*Excerpts of the text from the official announcement of the ‘Italian Design Day’ organized by the Triennale Design Museum and promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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I would like to conclude by commending the University of Nicosia for accepting to be a part of this worldwide project of excellence, a year after representing Cyprus in the Triennale Exhibition. I am certain that the Italian Design Day 2017 will contribute to strengthening the ties between Cyprus and the Italian world of architecture and design, building on the widespread appreciation for Italian highend products in Cyprus. I am equally certain that Arch. Fantoni will return to Italy with a greater insight into the latest trends in Cypriot architecture and design, which he will present to Triennale, fostering further cooperation between our two Countries. Guido Cerboni Ambassador of Italy
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Introduction
CEO @UNic
Introduction The Embassy of Italy is very pleased to partner with the Department of Architecture of the University of Nicosia for the Cypriot chapter of the “Italian Design Day”, a major event showcasing the excellence of Italian design all over the world. Promoted by the Italian Government in collaboration with the famous design and art museum “La Triennale di Milano”, it will consist of a series of events held in 100 cities on the same day, Thursday 2nd March 2017. The Cyprus event, which will take place at the Amphitheatre of the Architecture and Research Center (ARC) of the University of Nicosia, also aims at celebrating the numerous connections between Italy and Cyprus in the fields of architecture and interior and furniture design. Our special guest from Italy, selected by “La Triennale” as “Ambassador of Italian Design” to Cyprus, is Architect and Designer Tommaso Fantoni, founder in Milan of TOMOarchitects and descendant of the famous Italian designer Osvaldo Borsani. His presentation “Italian Design, from Atelier to Factory, from Local to National then Global” illustrates the origins and development of the furniture production in the District of Brianza (Milan hinterland) through the fascinating story of his grand-father’s family business, which grew from an artisanal atelier to an organized factory and, finally, to a widely recognized international brand with a strong distribution network and collaborations with prestigious architects and designers like Foster, Rogers, Boffil, Ambasz. The talk will be followed by a roundtable discussion with Cypriot architects and designers which have ties to Italy, offering also a chance for interaction with students and the general public. We also asked for the participation of prominent importers and retailers of Italian designer products – from furniture, to home-deco, to automobiles and scooters – because they greatly contribute to the notoriety of Italian Design here in Cyprus. I would like to conclude by commending the University of Nicosia for accepting to be a part of this worldwide project of excellence, a year after representing Cyprus in the Triennale Exhibition. I am certain that the Italian Design Day 2017 will contribute to strengthening the ties between Cyprus and the Italian world of architecture and design, building on the widespread appreciation for Italian highend products in Cyprus. I am equally certain that Arch. Fantoni will return to Italy with a greater insight into the latest trends in Cypriot architecture and design, which he will present to Triennale, fostering further cooperation between our two Countries. Guido Cerboni Ambassador of Italy
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ARC @UNic
The young and vibrant Department of Architecture at the University of Nicosia occupies an award winning renovated shoe factory, now known as the Architecture Research Center (ARC). Its faculty have successfully developed a reputation for the Department, by establishing a forward-thinking, innovative and socially aware program. As a result, the Department has acquired a well-respected presence in both the local and international professional architectural and education scenes. This publication demonstrates the rich and diverse spectrum of activities that the Department of Architecture’s faculty and students have shared with Italy. The fruitful collaboration between the Embassy of Italy and the Department has resulted in a diverse series of events: notably creative lectures, workshops, round-table discussions, exhibitions and field-trips have been organized. The expertise and work of the internationally recognized Italian architects Marco Canevacci, Daniel Mancini, Peter Picher and now Tommaso Fantoni Borsani have broadened our horizon through their lectures and workshops. The exchange has of course been two-fold. Both faculty and students of the Department of Architecture have been actively involved in multiple events in Italy such as festivals, competitions, exhibitions and conferences, some of which have resulted in joint publications. The most notable sign of cooperation being the Venice Architecture Biennale (Biennale Di Venezia). In 2006 Cyprus first inaugurated a pavilion in Venice and since then the Department of Architecture Has participated in the Biennale, either by selection of the curatorial committee to exhibit their work in the Cyprus Pavilion or through curatorial propositions. In 2016 members of the faculty with several alumni were chosen as the curatorial team of the Cyprus State Pavilion for the XXI Milan Design Triennale (Triennale Di Milano) ‘Design after Design’. The project ‘Human Topographies_ Emerging Identities’, celebrated the first participation of the Republic of Cyprus in this internationally recognized Design Event. Faculty members were also selected to participate in the Biennial of Public Space (Biennale Dello Spazio Publico di Roma) in 2015. The work of the Department of Architecture was exhibited at the MaPS @ MAXXI International Symposium and Exhibition in Rome. In 2016 the AIAC (Italian Association for Architecture and Criticism) in collaboration with A10 magazine, chose the project ‘Conversion of a Shoe Factory into the ARC’, designed by faculty members of the Department of Architecture, as the best building to represent Cyprus in the collateral event of the Venice Architecture Biennale, ‘Architects meet in Fuoribiennale’.
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The Department’s faculty and students have participated in educational trips and workshops in collaboration with established Italian Universities. They have gained a significant and diverse Italian experience through an Erasmus IP in Trieste and other Erasmus exchange Programs in Rome, Milan, Venice, Palermo and Bologna. Many research thematics taught in the architectural design courses of both the Undergraduate Bachelor Degree and the Professional Diploma are related to, or located in, Italy. Our students have been honored with distinctions and awards in International Architectural Design Competitions for Italian sites and related topics. There are major similarities shared by Italy and Cyprus: in the architectural challenges faced concerning restoration, climate change, migrating populations, earthquakes and rising water levels, to name a few. These are addressed in research and professional projects conducted by the faculty, as well as in multiple courses taught within the Department. We hope this is only the beginning of our collaboration and we strongly desire to continue developing rewarding and well-established ties between the academic and professional worlds of Italy and Cyprus.
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Alessandra Swiny Yiorgos Hadjichristou Head of the Department of Architecture Coordinator of Events Associate Professor, Architect Professor, Architect
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In practice_The state of committed architecture in Europe
Title
Project type/ category Location Affiliation Architects Collaborators External collaborator
Presentation, exhibition, publication Palazzo Widmann, Venice AIAC- Italian Association for Architecture and Criticism, in collaboration with A10 magazine and Gnosis Architecture Petros Konstantinou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Veronika Antoniou and Joao Teigas Alessandra Swiny The AIAC- Italian Association for Architecture and Criticism, in collaboration with A10 magazine, has chosen the project “Conversion of a Shoe Factory into the A.R.C - Architecture Research Centre, University of Nicosia” by the office of Yiorgos Hadjichristou Architects, as the best building to represent Cyprus in the collateral events of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
The project/ publication/ event consist of a European mapping of the best architecture practices. The idea is to develop a network of firms that are cleverly (re)shaping the world. Their goal is to publish a survey of the work of 37 firms, one per European country: a complete overview of the architects who, with their work, are building the future of architecture. Publication
Book ‘In practice_ The state of committed architecture in Europe’, The whole event and publication was promoted and supported by Gnosis Architecture. The project was presented by Yiorgos Hadjichristou during the fourth edition of the special event “Architects meet in Fuoribiennale”, a collateral event to the Venice Architecture Biennale, organized by AIAC in partnership with A10, at Palazzo Widmann in the afternoon of the 26th of May 2016.
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Human Topographies – Emerging Identities
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Project type/ category Location Affiliation Curators Collaborators Collaborators as professional experts
Cyprus State Pavilion of the Milan Design Triennale ‘Design After Design’ 2016 Milan Ministry of Education and Culture- Petros Dimiotis Alessandra Swiny, Veronika Antoniou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Christiana Karamalli, Yiorgos Papiotis, Ourania Apserou Nikos Christofides- JNC, Light engineer Yiannis Christofides - Sound artist and musician Technical support: Michalis Georgiou
The exhibition eloquently illustrates how two prevailing struggles, Division and Crisis, can lead to a new and positive ‘Emerging Identity’ for the Island of Cyprus. Architectural works/projects from both the public and private realm have been carefully researched and chosen for the ways in which they activate architectural and social change. These are collaged, projected and blurred, creating an interactive corporeal and sensory experience. This experience evokes a new urban landscape, created from human topographies that echo the voice of an emerging identity. The requirement of the Triennale that the design component be a ‘theatrical representation of an unknown reality’ influenced the spatial proposal of the exhibit. Thus it aims to capture the presence of the visitors and transfer their interactions in an enticing corporeal and sensory experience. The exhibit is centered around Architectural shadow puppets which fill the room with multitudes of reflected images. The puppets represent the ‘products’ and ‘ingredients’, be they buildings, infrastructure, or objects, interwoven together with weather and social ritual scenographies. The experience will be enhanced by the use of recordings, projections, various modes of lighting, kinetics, fans, moving mechanisms, mirrors, transparencies, markings, text and tracings orchestrated with the shadow art effect.
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“Everything flows, nothing stands still.” Heraclitus
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The Game: Urban Pieces in Warfare
Title
Project type/ category Location Affiliation Authors
Participation in the 10th Venice Architectural Biennale for the Cyprus Pavilion. Porous Borders: The Greenline of Nicosia. The Dead Zone Venice The exhibition was held by the Ministry of Education and Culture with the Cyprus Architects Association. The curators Rena Sakellaridou, Morpho Papanikolaou and Menos Philippides selected 10 Cypriot teams through a competition for the first Cypriot pavilion in the Venice Architecture Biennale. Paris Philippou, Alessandra Swiny, Antonis Antoniou
The limits of the Green Line are created by the two opposing military formations. Through investigating the reconfigured urban fabric on the fringes of the Line within the walled city of Nicosia, a Game was created. This Game is made out of exact to-scale replicas of the existing urban blocks, which are currently used as defensive fortifications by the military. These models illustrate the untypical ways in which the military use typical spaces, such as streets and houses, to suit their strategies. The result: a Game in which you can create and re-configure your own sequences of contemporary urban warfare.
www.porousborders.org
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Project type/ category Location Affiliation Authors Collaborators
Participation in the 10th Venice Architectural Biennale for the Cyprus Pavilion. Venice The exhibition was held by the Ministry of Education and Culture with the Cyprus Architects Association. The curators Rena Sakellaridou, Morpho Papanikolaou and Menos Philippides selected 10 Cypriot teams through a competition for the first Cypriot pavilion in the Venice Architecture Biennale. Veronika Antoniou, Petros Konstantinou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Yiannos Economou, Nicos Synnos, Georgia Konstantinou, Christos A. Georgiou
“Everything flows, nothing stands still.” Heraclitus Nicosia. The divided city. Green Line: Green? Line? Human paranoia - war… Dead Zone. An impenetrable park? Dilapidated city. Barbed wire, sandbags, barrels, walls, machine-gun posts, checkpoints… Boundaries Movement of sounds, animals, ideas, immigrants, images…Porosity. Surreal landscape. Non-space? Non-time? Reminiscences… And then... Water. Revival of the river. New Life. Barbed wire. Transformation into nature: Climbers, Foliage, Flowers Hope. Optimism. Visions. Poetic space. Ethereal. Signs of civilization in amongst the memories. Emergence of the new town. Future. Coexistence and Tolerance. For new communities. The conversion of town and nature carry on.
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Easylove
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Project type/ category Location Affiliation Authors
Participation in the 11th Venice Architectural Biennale for the Cyprus Pavilion. Venice The exhibition was held by the Ministry of Education and Culture with the Cyprus Architects Association. The curator Peter Cook and the curator’s assistants Marios Christodoulides and Dickon Irwin selected teams through a competition for the second Cypriot pavilion in the Venice Architecture Bienale. Maria Hadjisoteriou, Alessandra Swiny, Yiorgos Hadjichristou, Markella Menikou, Adonis Kleanthous, and Yiorgos Souglides Easylove Order your cubic meter of Cyprus now! Forget about airplanes, trains and automobiles. • improve your carbon footprint • conserve energy • minimize waste • save precious water • inverse climate change • disperse vacation destinations all over the planet and eliminate the need for traveling
order now! help cyprus disperse itself all over the planet! • choose your favorite cubic meter of cyprus • as the cube of cyprus arrives in its new home, it sits comfortably and is ready for useyour chosen cubic meter will be transported to your most convenient destination. be it your own living room, your office, your favorite town square, or even adorning your most beloved ethnic monument. • meanwhile, back in cyprus, more and more cubic meters are departing from the island, creating new spatial relationships, allowing more water to infiltrate the inner parts of the island. • as the world demand of cyprus – cubes is much bigger than the supply, gradually the coast line increases with infinite clones of ayia - napa ... but steadily, cyprus erases itself off the map. Cyprus, the island of love, in an act of infinite self – sacrifice sprinkles itself all over the world, offering itself for everlasting enjoyment.
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Title
A Walking Movie
Project type/ category Location Affiliation Participant Authors of the project
Venice Biennale Exhibition Venice The exhibition was held by the Ministry of Education and Culture with the Cyprus Architects Association. The curator was Christos Hadjichristou Alessandra Swiny Petros Konstantinou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou
Nominated by architects of Cyprus to be exhibited in the exhibition. www.beetroot.gr/walkingmovie.org/
Ifigeneia Kaizer project, Aglantzia
Title
Project type/ category Location Affiliation Participant Authors of the project
Venice Biennale Exhibition Venice The exhibition was held by the Ministry of Education and Culture with the Cyprus Architects Association. The curator was Christos Hadjichristou Yiorgos Hadjichristou Petros Konstantinou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou
05.2010. Selected to participate in the Cyprus pavilion in the 12th Venice Architectural Biennial curated by Christos Hadjichristou with the project: House and institute of Greek language of Ifigeneia Kaizer.
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‘People meet in Architecture’ _12th Venice Biennale 2010_Cyprus Pavilion Proposal
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Project type/ category Location Affiliation Curators Collaborators
1st Runner up in the Competition for the Curatorial team of the State Pavilion of Cyprus Venice Competition held by the Cyprus Architects Association Veronika Antoniou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Joao Teigas, Rene Carraz and Yiannos Economou
The proposal aims at offering a unique kinaesthetic experience of the visitor to the pavilion in constructed ‘humane environment’. It follows the Biennale’s thematic ‘people meet in architecture’ by examining the change of the prevailing masses of the built environment with negligible openings in the beginning of human history to the almost ethereal, immaterial architecture of the present which led to the change of the almost invisible inhabitant of the old times to the prevailing human figures and activities on the contemporary times. Thus the focus of this research discusses the material and immaterial presence of the humans and human activities as the main architectural element of the built environment. The interactive experience of the visitor is built with ‘human surfaces’ constructed with the ideas deriving from ‘Lefkara lacings’. The research that will be displayed will be interwoven with human figures in an integrated, blended new entity. The narrated stories and the human ‘laced figurines’ interchange forms and information in a grasping playful fluctuation of densities, porosities and transparencies.
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Project type/ category Location Affiliation Curators Participation as tutors of the workshop Participants
Revisit_ Customizing tourism State Pavilion of Cyprus, 13th International Exhibition of Architecture in Venice. Workshop Nicosia / Venice Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus Architects Association Charis Christodoulou and Spyros Spyrou Angela Petrou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Elli Balampanidou, Lefki Charalambous, Yianna Hadjicosti, Yiota Kyriacou, Marinos Kyriakou, Eugenios Vassiliou, Chrysanthos Yiakubiv, Stephanie Zavalli, Evgenios Zozoulya
The workshop was organized for two weeks with the participation of students from all four Architecture Departments of Cyprus Universities. The students were called to redesign reform and reuse space in projects dealing with the above issues. The country’s future architects introduce their ideas of how architecture may reinforce common ground between tourism and local urbanism while upgrading both! Furthermore the workshop as a process, the student engagement as well as the commitment of the collaborated teaching staff from the four Architectural Departments and the input of guest professionals on the field of Tourism formed a platform of discussion on a common ground and unfold the complicated relationships in decision making involving political, social and economic parameters. This process generated the exhibited projects of the Cyprus Participation. Visitors of the National Pavilion of Cyprus will have the opportunity to enter the country’s stereotypical touristic scenery in order to witness alternative touristic experiences.
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Human Topographies – Emerging Identities
Title
Reverbarating courtyards_ Carving Histories
Title
Project type/ category Location Affiliation Curators Collaborators
Participation in the competition for the curatorial team for the 14th Venice Architectural Biennale for the Cyprus Pavilion. Runner up Venice The exhibition was held by the Ministry of Education and Culture with the Cyprus Architects Association. Alessandra Swiny and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Michalis Georgiou, Phidias Pavlides, Alexis Postekkis “Reverbarating courtyards_ Carving Histories”Rediscovery of the courtyard: evolution instead of repetition.
The proposal focuses on the notion of the courtyard. It aims to educate the visitor on the historical background of the courtyards and its evolution over time. The courtyard will be explored and revived. Examples will be shown illustrating how it has been re- invented and re-interpreted over time- through the centuries till today. The proposal attempts to focus on the development of the courtyard, corresponding to the establishment of certain strong and vital social characteristics of the island. Responses to new ways of living as dictated by contemporary needs will also be explored. New approaches utilizing the courtyard as a generator of innovative spatial conditions will be examined by presenting a series of projects executed on the island from 1914- 2014. These will range from interventions on existing traditional houses to a series of newly proposed deferring typologies (private houses, housing projects, schools, public premises and larger urban scale interventions).
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Project type/ category Participation in the competition for the curatorial team for the 15th Venice Architectural Biennale for the Cyprus Pavilion. 1st runner up Location Venice Affiliation The exhibition was held by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus Architects Association Curators Alessandra Swiny and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Collaborators Christiana Karamalli, Yiorgos Papiotis, Ourania Apserou External Collaborators Veronica Antoniou - Urban Gorillas NGO- Maza Collective Collaborators as professional experts Nikos Christofides- JNC, Light engineer Yiannis Christofides - Sound artist and musician The proposal focuses on two prevailing ‘frontiers’ that architects of the Island of Cyprus struggle with and battle against on a daily basis at multiple levels: Crisis and Division. The Pavilion will eloquently illustrate how these battles are fought through architectural works or projects found in the PUBLIC and PRIVATE Realm, and how BLURRED examples that exist on the fringe – (which are created through organized or unorganized public events in urban spaces), lead to the creation of new emerging and highly potent voices. The exhibit in the main space will form a puppet/shadow art environment. With the use of light, water, vegetation, earth, sound and architectural puppets/boxes, serving also as peep holes, are reflected and create shadows on the walls and the floor. Thus the narrative of the emergent built environment will be communicated. The experience will be enhanced by the use of recordings, projections, various modes of lighting, kinetics, fans, mechanisms, mirrors, transparencies, marking and tracings. The shadow art effect and the projections will be interwoven with the sound-scape calibrations constantly changing the sequence and amplifications. Puppets invoked by the traditional ‘karagiozis’ will be used to present the human in this battle and frontier thematic.
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‘WE ARE’ common ground
Title
Project type/ category Location Affiliation Curators Collaborators Participants
Competition for the Curatorial team of the State Pavilion of Cyprus for the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale Venice Competition held by the Cyprus Architects Association Maria Hadjisoteriou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Alessandra Swiny and Veronika Antoniou Marios Stavrinides, Stavors Voskaris, Constas Nikolaou, Yiota Kyriakou, John Takkos, Lefki Charalambous, Yanna Hadjicosti, Chris Yakubiv, Constantinos Kounnis, Rania Tollefson, Marios Antoniou
We refer to the ‘Occupy’* as the starting point of our approach: A group of people seeks to claim a public space (and their own space) in the Buffer Zone of the Divided Nicosia. We see the Green line as one of the various ‘vague terrains’ of Nicosia, together with the unexploited but significant terraces of the town, the linear flow of the ambiguously used area of the so called ‘Pediaios River’, the empty blocks within the city including the courtyards of the schools etc. These ‘ambiguous spaces’, seen under the prism of the ‘occupy’, trigger new ways of approaching the notion of ‘common ground’. Consequently and inevitably, this investigation may generate insights on the ‘general common ground’ and give new perspectives in cities like Nicosia. The proposal takes on ideas as the ‘nature taking over’ ‘urban fluidities and ephemeralities’ ‘social participatory’, ‘urban biodiversity etc. The physical presence of the pavilion will be an interactive installation where the material and immaterial qualities of the buffer zone will be used.
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Title
Informal Public Spaces
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Curators
Invited as a correspondent for Cyprus at a Seminar/ Round Table at the 2°bIENNALE DELLO SPAZIO PUBBLICO Rome 2013 University of Bologna, University of Florence Angela Kyriacou-Petrou & Maria Hadjisoteriou Event organized by Luisa Bravo, University of Bologna (Italy)
Modifications taking place in the social and economic sphere, together with the digital revolution, has profoundly changed the way individuals meet and create relationships, therefore uses of public space in the contemporary city. Urban planners and public administrators design and manage the public realm relying more and more on participation activities, working on sharing, consultation and negotiation with citizens, according to no longer standardized paradigms, but specific to each context, closely linked to local communities in an attempt to also give feedback to multiple expressions of bottom-up urban activism. A research project, developed at the University of Bologna in collaboration with the University of Florence, with the support of an international network of scholars and designers, explores new knowledge-based investigations and suggests analysis, approaches and methods of work and research. www.biennalespaziopubblico.it/2012/06/16/ gli-spazi-pubblici-nel-centro-storico/ ‘Informal Public Spaces’ Nicosia is categorized by the absence of formally defined public spaces. The density of buildings in the fortified city has developed a particular kind of public space. With the development of the city and its suburbs and the intervention of planning laws the ownership of space becomes more clearly defined and public activity is found only in small informal nodal points. Fragmentation of public space and its navigation is examined through a Network of public spaces in the area of Agia Fyla.
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MaPS. Mastering Public Space. A collaborative research network on cities and urbanity
Title
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Scientific coordinator Curators
Invited as a correspondent for Cyprus at a Seminar/ Round Table at the 3° BIENNALE DELLO SPAZIO PUBBLICO Roma Tre University, Rome 2015 University of Nicosia & Luisa Bravo, City Space Architecure, non-profit organization based in Bologna, Italy www.biennalespaziopubblico.it Angela Kyriacou-Petrou & Maria Hadjisoteriou
Student Work
“Mouttalos project of Unit 6 research studio Angela K. Petrou, Maria Hadjisoteriou This activity started during the 2014-15 academic year and developed as a laboratory by Professors in Architecture and Urban Design together with students in Italy and abroad. Every team could chose a city as a case study, to be explored and represented together with the complexity and contradictions of its public spaces. Scholars and students worked in parallel, from Fall 14 to Spring16, sharing materials and suggestions on ongoing achievements. The results were then presented and discussed in May 2015 at the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico in Rome, during a special public session/event.
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Demochange Cities_ Urban & Social Transformations
Title
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation & Participants Budget
Erasmus IP (Internsive Program) Trieste, Italy 2009-2012 Massimo Bricocoli (coordinator) (Milan Polytechnic), Elena Marchigiani (Degli Studi di Trieste, Italy), Alessandra Swiny (University of Nicosia), Ingrid Breckner (HafenCity University, Germany), Rudy Poledna (Babes-Bolyai University, Romania), Gesa Witthoeft (Wein Technical University, Austria) (w/ 5 students per faculty) 40,000 EURO
Awarded an Erasmus Intensive Program for 2009-2011 for the project ‘Demochange Cities’ (40,000 euro) with a group of 5 architects, city planners and sociologists from Milan Polytechnic and Degli Studi di Trieste, Italy; HafenCity University, Germany; Babes-Bolyai University, Romania; Wein Technical University, Austria. The first meeting was in Vienna. The second in Trieste each faculty member with 5 students, for a 2 week Intensive design workshop on site with the clients and inhabitants of Zindis. The third meeting was in Nicosia. The fourth was a 2 week workshop in Vienna. The fifth and sixth meetings were held in Cluj-Napoca. The panels show the projects developed in the first Intensive workshop in Trieste (09.2010-10.2010). Attending faculty member: Alessandra Swiny The proposal takes on ideas as the ‘nature taking over’ ‘urban fluidities and ephemeralities’ ‘social participatory’, ‘urban biodiversity etc. The physical presence of the pavilion will be an interactive installation where the material and immaterial qualities of the buffer zone will be used.
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Parasitizing the void (Post quake vision)
Title
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Participants Tutors
Final year architectural design project + distinction at an International competition Crevalcore, Italy 2014 University of Nicosia Elli Balabanidou and Eleanthi Mintsiou Michalis Georgiou, Alessandra Swiny and Yiorgos Hadjichristou
UNIT 5: ‘In_Out Crisis’
In the earthquake torn town of Crevalcore, in Italy, the E. Mitsiou’s project “Parasitizing the Void: PostQuake Vision”, a development of the above project’s success, proposes to implant ‘urban branches to help restore the city over the ground towards the air. Inspired by the transformation of the interior courtyards with cultivation practices and the seasonal gastronomic festivals, a series of ‘urban branches’ operates as support structures growing upwards, activating the existing ‘ruined’ old buildings. The lightweight skeleton stretches and leans like a seed, which is dropped, grows and parasitizes the remained built environment. It embraces the traditional courtyards and regenerates the notion of the skin, providing an abundance of aesthetic and spatial qualities, which respond to the ever-changing programmatic requirements. An elegant dialogue with the surviving architecture takes into consideration issues of memory, heritage, development, and possibilities of upcoming disasters. It raises all these cultural and social treasures of the local settlement in the air to safeguard the continuation and the evolvement of the earthquake bound cities. The 5th year student Eleanthi Mintsiou and the graduate Ellie Balabanidou were ranked among 30 finalists in the International Call for Ideas Post Quake Visions with the ‘Secret Gardens’.
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Dys.M.O.T.i.a
Title
reVenice
Title
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Student Tutors
Final year architectural design project Venice, Italy 2014-2015 University of Nicosia Elena Stavrou Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous UNIT 4 - Divining the future; “Technology is the answer, but what was the question?”
100 years from now the city of Venice will be evacuated due to the increasing rise of water level. The goal of the project is to intelligently manipulate additional spatial conditions through the city, in a way that embraces the architectural characteristics of Venice. More specifically the project aims to maintain the very strong scenographic character of Venice that is created by the existing buildings scenery, materiality and the ever-changing views it provides from various stop points. The proposal is driven by the concept of phenomenal transparency and it is based on a futuristic scenario that aims to recreate/retain the existing experience of Venice after the scenario of flooding. By using solid elements in specific areas that do not block views while maintaining the perception of space and characteristic elements of the city, the proposal succeeds in containing a large percentage of the existing scenery with the addition of new programmes. The experience offers a revisit of Venice or in simple words reVenice.
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Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Students Tutors
Final year architectural design project + distinction at an International competition Venice, Italy 2013-2014 University of Nicosia Elena Stavrou, Christiana Karamalli, Stravros Chrysanthou, Stephanie Zavalli and Tasos Pouros Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous
UNIT 4 - Divining the future; “Technology is the answer, but what was the question?”
The project assumes that 100 years henceforth, the city of Venice is flooded and therefore the whole city is buried underwater. The main aim of the proposition is to test how the unique experience of Venice could be revisited under this assumption. The project attempts to rethink Venice’s future transportation, habitation and tourism in a holistic way. The project is located on the islands of Poveglia and Ottagono within the Venetian Lagoon. Starting from envisioning an extreme dystopic environment for the future state of the islands, a new means of transportation and accommodation is proposed so visitors and tourists can experience this dystopia via the launch of “dys-m.o.t-ia”. The use of the efficient 19th century military defence system in the Venetian Lagoon is utilised to define future transportation routes, taking advantage of strategic positions to propose new transportation hubs serving the entire Lagoon. The aim of the project is to provide visitors with the opportunity of experiencing Venice through a new proposed Means of Transportation, called the MOT. The MOT recreates the essence of the gondola rides, the famous and traditional way of travelling around Venice. The visitors are now able to travel underwater and the MOT functions as a living unit at the same time, possibly substituting the conventional hotel room. The project ‘Dys.M.O.T.i.a’ was awarded the second prize in the ‘New ways to live Venice’ international competition organised by MArch in fall 2014.
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Reactivation/ Reconnetion# forte portuense
Title
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Student Tutors
Final year architectural design project + distinction at an International competition Rome, Italy 2014-2015 University of Nicosia Chrysanthos Yiakubiv Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous
Title
Poveglia and Ottagono
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Student Tutors
Final year architectural design project + distinction at an International competition Venice, Italy 2014-2015 University of Nicosia Stephanie Zavalli Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous
UNIT 4 - Divining the future; “Technology is the answer, but what was the question?”
The YAC competition asked architects to rethink former military architecture Forte Portuense into a leisure time & cultural focal point - capable on one hand of triggering urban redevelopment & social cooperation and on the other hand to attract citizens & tourists.
The dystopic scenery of the tiny islands Poveglia and Ottagono inspired the narrative of this proposition. Dark moments throughout history have earned it the title of one of the most haunted islands in the world. It has in the past hosted a lunatic asylum, prison and hospital and was considered until recently a strictly forbidden area. The aim of the project is to provide visitors with the opportunity of experiencing the islands through new proposed temporary living units arranged above the existing built fabric and original programme. Today Poveglia is uninhabited so the project aims at giving ‘‘life’’ back to the site by resurrecting past programmes. The island will be inhabited by lifelong prisoners. A new continuous functional self-regulated ‘space’ will give the prisoner more control over simple everyday activities and at the same time transform their negative emotions for true rehabilitation. The prisoners would therefore take more ownership of their space.These islands should not be perceived as static objects on a map, but as the ever-changing system that they actually are. Buildings previously rooted to the ground, are now going to be free of gravitational force and the aim is to create a new structure that will use the existing buildings as footprints. The ‘island’ will now be truly three-dimensional.
The project “Reactivation/Reconnetion# forte portuense” was ranked among the finalists at the “Rome Community Ring” Young Architects international Competitions 2015.
Stephanie Zavalli’s project “Poveglia and Ottagono” has been awarded with a Special Mention for Narratological Visualization at the “d3 Housing Tomorrow 2015” international architecture competition.
UNIT 4 - Divining the future; “Technology is the answer, but what was the question?”
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Title
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Students Tutors
Cyprus to Italy
Staging Transit Final year architectural design project + distinction at an International competition Venice, Italy 2013-2014 University of Nicosia Mahssa Sabouhi, Marios Demetriou, Andreas Perentes, Katerina Pantelidi, Chrystalla Koufopavlou Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous UNIT 4 - Divining the future; “Technology is the answer, but what was the question?”
The proposal addresses the overpopulation of Venice and related habitation issues, moreover considering a solution for urban mobility and how to improve movement through the city. The objective is to conceive a new connecting network for the entire site that inherently deals with programmatically activating the site and improving transportation. The proposed transportation network consists of a “fast” lane and a “slow” lane offering an experiential ride between and around the islands. These are achieved by routes elevated above ground and water level, containing a walking path and a teleferic system. The proposition aims to strategically link Poveglia Island to other islands around it, including the Island of Lido, Venice, and other abandoned Islands in the site. The contextual strategy evolves in phases over time. Starting from the existing waterways demarcated by pillars the project proposes a series of “stepping stones” (stations in the water) that will gradually get linked until a fully operational transportation system is completed. The project consists of an expandable scaffolding system (gridbase framework) that appears first on the existing islands and the additional “stepping stones” and then grows in between them to complete the network. This is a long term evolution strategy for the site as it will enable dense programmes from Venice to spill out in the wider area via the expanding infrastructure and transportation and create a network of activities. The project ‘Staging Transit’ was awarded the third prize in the ‘New ways to live Venice’ international competition organised by MArch in fall 2014.
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Title
Transplanting Spoglia
Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Students Tutors
Final year architectural design project + distinction at an International competition Crevalcore, Italy 2013-2014 University of Nicosia Myria Panteli,Marios Stavrinides, Elena Stavrou, Christina Hadjisterkoti, Constantinos Pavlou Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous
UNIT 4 - Divining the future; “Technology is the answer, but what was the question?”
The project revisits the idea of time and the evolution (growth) of an architectural project. Having as a catalyst the unpredictable nature of the future, a new urban setting is proposed which is able to accommodate different narratives that will potentially unfold in time. The proposal eliminates the existing ground surface as an attempt to bring to light the underground labs of Crevalcore. A structure of triangulations, held together by magnetic joints, is used both as a defence mechanism against earthquakes and as a strategy for future development. The new structure is choreographed into predefined typologies of linear and “abstract” arrangements, in order to make the identification of different programmes in the site easier. Breaking the physical limits of existing buildings, the first limit is set in the actual street (Roman Street –centre of social interaction).The edges are manipulated to include programmatically intense points and the linearity of circulation is broken into a critical zig-zag flow, setting some transit stops connecting in this way the underground labs with new programmes. The proposal does not preserve existing buildings as museum pieces, but instead preserves the memory of the past. The proposal is gradually injected with pieces from the past, preserving in this way the memory and enablinf an organic transition into the future. Therefore “spoglia” (fragmented remains of the old town of Crevalcore) are strategically transplanted into the new structure. The project “Transplanting Spoglia” was ranked among the finalists in the “Post Quake Visions” international competition. The project was presented and exhibited in the award ceremony, Crevalcore, Italy, 21st December 2013.
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Title
WAVE 2012: San Francesco della Vigna: Reinterpretation of space and urban regeneration
Title
Project type/ category Student Work – Workshop Location Venice, Italy Date 2014-2015 Affiliation IUAV - Università Iuav di Venezia Coordinator Elena Konstantinidou Tutor Michalis Georgiou Collaborators Theresa Kwok, Stefano Tornieri The aim of the 3-week workshop was to introduce students to the concept of new architectural creation within a region of particular historic and architectural character as is Venice, where the issue of integration is posed dynamically. What we were looking for was a way to connect the past to the present, through collaboration, oppositional correlation and the development of a dialectic relationship with the place. During Site Analysis (1st week), students organized in groups of 8-10 people. Each group focused in a specific characteristic of space and developed a possible scenario for the site. For the synthesis phase (2nd and 3rd week) students formed smaller groups (3-4 people) and developed their proposed design scenarios. The general idea was to transform the iconic abandoned gasometers of the site into a contemporary landmark, connecting it with the Campo San Francesco Della Vigna and the Seafront and therefore attempting the reinterpretation of space and urban regeneration.
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Project type/ category Location Date Affiliation Tutor Guest Tutor Guest tutors in Venice Students Venice workshop Italian students Additional participants
Milan Venice Workshop 2016 Educational trip and workshop with the Bologna university – Luigi Bartolomei Venice, Italy 2014-2015 Unic, Bologna University Yiorgos Hadjichristou Sevina Floridou Luigi Bartolomei, assistant: Andrea Conti Christoforou Christina, Abboud Rafael, Tsigeni Ioanna, Hadjioannou Panayiotis, Godspower Nwaeke, Natalia Moisenkova Natalia Alferova Guido Maria Amorati , Elena Forapani, Matilde Mengucci, Mattia Cassoli, Luca Marenzi, Laura Manoni, Serena Indaco Despina Nikolaidou, Eleanthi Mintsiou, Demetris Paliouras, Michelle Nicolaou, Kalliopi Christoforou, Nafsika Hadjichristou, Alkinoos Hadjichristou
The workshop was based on the specific trip to Milan and Venice in Italy. The intensive schedule with visits to significant architectural, urban, art and other sites, including the most prestigious and rich exhibitions of the Trienale of Milan ‘Design After Design’ and the 15th Architecture Biennale of Venice triggered opportunities and expanded the knowledge of the Italian and international architectural theory and practice. Students were involved in workshops with research, discussions presentations, meetings, visiting exhibitions and architectural significant works, walking the city, presentations by the tutors and groups of students, brain storming discussions and round table discussions, quick response to the thematic of the exhibitions with sketches, small texts, etc.
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Title ‘IN practice_ the state of committed architecture in Europe’ Project type/category Event with exhibition and presentation Location Church “Santa Maria del Rosario a Portamedina”Naples Date 2017 Affiliation AIAC (Italian Association of Architecture and Criticism) in partnership with A10, DIARC (Department of Architecture) of University Federico II in Naples and Aniai Campania (Association of Engineers and Architects in Campania). It will be producted by Gnosis Architettura. Participant as presenter and exhibitor: Yiorgos Hadjichristou
Title
Project type/ category Location Affiliation Tutors Participants
Venice Trip 2010 Educational trip Venice University of Nicosia Maria Hadjisoteriou, Yiorgos Hadjichristou Students of the Unit 2 ‘Living Where The Immaterial Matters
Title ‘Green Urban Lab’ Project type/category Exhibition and presentation Location MAXXI, Rome Date May 2015 Affiliation City Space Architecture, collaborative research network of cities and urbanity 2014-2017- MaPS. Mastering Public Space, MAXXI museum Presenter Yiorgos Hadjichristou Collaborators Veronika Antoniou and Rene Carraz
Field trip of the unit to Venice, the “12th International Architecture Exhibition Venice architectural biennale – ‘people meet in architecture.’ Curator: Sejima Kazuyo . We Visited and discussed the innovative ideas in architecture in Arsenale and Jardini with the students, keeping up to date with what is happening in the international scene. Students had to use this research in their work.
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Title Maps@ Maxxi Project type/category Presentations, Exhibition, Academic paper and student work Location Maxxi Museum, Rome Affiliation MaPS. Mastering Public Space. A collaborative research network on cities and urbanity, Scientific coordinator: Luisa Bravo, City Space Architecure, non-profit organization based in Bologna, Italy Authors Angela Kyriacou-Petrou & Maria Hadjisoteriou Title Past Present and Future
of Public space International Conference on Art, Architecture & Urban Design
Project type/category Conference Session: Space Identity & Conflict ‘Creating Identity in Industrial Edgelands’ Location Bologna, Italy Date June 2014 Affiliation City Space Architecture Authors Angela Kyriacou-Petrou & Maria Hadjisoteriou Title “Nicosia Buy/Sell Point”; a hands-on experiment Project type/category Conference presentation and publication in the proceedings volume [EAAE Transactions on Architectural Education no. 61, ISBN 978-2930301-60-0, pp.761-771] Location Naples, Italy Date 2013 Affiliatio ENHSA/EAAE international conference, “Architectural Education and the Reality of the Ideal: Environmental design for innovation in the post-crisis world” Authors Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous
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Title “Connect the dots” instruments for divining the future Project type/category Conference presentation and publication in the proceedings volume [EAAE Transactions on Architectural Education no. 61, ISBN 978-2930301-60-0, pp.267-278] Location Naples, Italy Date October 2013 Affiliation ENHSA/EAAE international conference, “Architectural Education and the Reality of the Ideal: Environmental design for innovation in the post-crisis world” Authors Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous
Year 3, 2nd Semester: Architectural Design V, Building Technology (Project: “Buster’s Bedroom-The Endless Remake”) + Construction + Building Services Title
Project type/category Conference presentation and publication in the proceedings volume [EAAE Transactions on Architectural Education no. 45, ISBN 978-2930301-42-6 Location Genoa, Italy Date June 2009 Affiliation EHNSA / EAAE Architectural Design Teachers and Construction Teachers Networks Authors Markella Menikou, Adonis Cleanthous
Title Perform(d)ance Project type/category Conference presentation and publication in the proceedings volume [EAAE Transactions on Architectural Education no. 45, ISBN 978-2930301-42-6 Location Genoa, Italy Date June 2009 Affiliation EHNSA/ EAAE Architectural Design Teachers and Construction Teachers Networks Authors Alessandra Swiny and Yiorgos Hadjichristou
mapping
A re-reading of the site is made through the mapping process, aiming to subvert the fixed image of the site and reveal its identity. The site is examined as a multicultural contested area, where political unrest between the two communities and the current status left a distinct physiognomy on the urban fabric.
Title Design Studio 1st year 2nd Semester - Scale and the Human Body_Materiality and Modularization The process of seeing and mapping activities from the ground directs the observer to examine the small scale ordinary things of the site, giving them importance. This elevates the meanings of the simple everyday to extraordinary, and has the advantage of identifying the unique characteristics of the particular place and at the same time uncovering its identity.
Project type/category Conference presentation and publication in the proceedings volume [EAAE Transactions on Architectural Education no. 45, ISBN 978-2930301-42-6 Location Genoa, Italy very particular The status of “non ownership” identified was seen as an opportunity conditions that have given Date June 2009 to rediscover a new hybrid opportunity for small scale urban narrative for the site. temporary structures to become Two conditions are always in the prominent model of Affiliation EHNSA/ EAAE Architectural Design juxtaposition: the “contemporary development in the area. identity” and the “borrowed Teachers and Construction Teachers Networks identity”. These two distinct The ‘40 years of temporality’ as entities are being merged proposed by the research work, together to create a strong hybrid reflects both a strong sense Authors Maria Hadjisoteriou Maria and Paris physiognomy that builds on the of memory but also absence multicultural character of the of belonging, that creates an Philippou,, and Co- Author Angela Petrou impermanence. The need of site.
potential narratives
Temporary and Permanent Research has recognized a strong characteristic of temporary elements in Mouttalos and
the people to adjust, creates an alternative permanency; thus their narrative of student research was entitled: “the Permanence of Impermanence”.
Unit6: “adaptive Architecture_time Synergies”, [4&5th year students]; tutors: maria hadjisoteriou, angela kyriacou petrou; collaborator: sevina floridou; academic year 2014-15; architecture department; university of nicosia
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narrative images from international student workshop;unic; lau;ntua; february 2015; mouttalos
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