LEDRA PALACE CROSSING, NICOSIA BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY CATALYST II / ARCH-491 / 9th – 13 th November 2015 / [A.R.C.] Petros Lapithis, Anna Papadopoulou, Alexandros Postekkis, Nikolas Tsaousis
Catalyst Brief The workshop addresses the issue of social sustainability within a humanistic and cultural context, set on the platform of the built environment. Participants are called to consider matters of formal and informal urban structure, sense of community, social identity and ethics as those pertain to societal development in a diverse, multicultural setting. Operating under the premise that social sustainability can be attained through means of collaboration and common awareness, the workshop’s findings aim to activate urban spaces in a three-dimensional and temporal manner in order to induce values of social and egalitarian participation. At demanding times such as these, when we are called upon as a nation to withstand the turbulence of the financial crisis and the challenges of the energy potential, issues of community and social cohesion become pivotal to our global survival. The time has come to look beyond skin colour, religion and social order and to employ architecture as a means of creating living spaces that transcend racial division and micro-politics. With this in mind, a group of instructors and dedicated students gathered around the Ledra Palace Crossing , Nicosia, and invented a world where social problems are tackled with urban proposals. This initiative came forth under the umbrella of Buildings Blocks for Social Sustainability (ARCH-491Catalyst II). The site chosen is known as the Ledra Palace Crossing and it is situated just outside the western top of the Venetian Walls of Nicosia. The name of the area has been provided by military checkpoint separating Nicosia’s militarized and demilitarized jurisdictions. Ledra Palace the building immediately adjacent to the checkpoint, was formerly a landmark hotel for the city, and currently provides administrative and accommodation facilities for the United Nations (UN) forces stationed in Cyprus. The rich tapestry of the area’s past extends along the approximate north-south axis provided by the Wall and the Moat, which act as a spine connecting civil buildings such as th4 the District and Supreme Courts in the south, Ledra Palace in the north, impressive sandstone colonial buildings on the west and a more humble and dense residential fabric on the east. Conditions of spatial and social isolation occur as a result of the different jurisdictions, the site’s elevational challenges and the area’s active historicity.
Statement To sustain is to survive, and to survive as a community requires that class and racial differences, as well as spatial and perceptual distances are overcome by good will and good design. As such, social sustainability combines design of the physical realm with design of the social world for creating successful places that promote wellbeing by understanding what people need from the places they live and work. Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes Participants take a multi-ethnic area of particular urban interest, analyse it as per its specific physical and social elements and invented a system, a process, a space, an object, a condition, or a circumstance that will act as a catalyst of social and spatial perception. Final products range from the invention of a new visual language for wayfinding, choreographing experiential activities, staging new urban functions, designing interactive mobile systems, temporary or permanent structures and others. The aim of the design is to challenge current cognitive perceptions and encourage social inclusion and sustainable communities. While particular attention is set on non-conventional means of visual expression, inquiries include the physical and metaphorical manifestation of conditions of social inclusion and exclusion, identifying physical elements or landmarks that if removed, would strip the area of its identity, its sense of place, traces of transculturation etc. Since the nature of the catalyst workshop is limited to five working days, participants’ quests are better served while operating in groups of three. Each group takes on the investigation of any of the following circumstantial relationships: Amenities and social infrastructure, Social and cultural life, Voice and influence. Space to grow.
The Instructors The instructing team consists of practitioners and theoreticians with an extensive background on issues of sustainable design, bioclimatic architecture, sustainable urbanism and social and environmental ethics. Dr Petros Lapithis is a professor of architecture and the coordinator of the Sustainable Design Unit (SDU) at the Department of Architecture, University of Nicosia, while Anna Papadopoulou joins the SDU as adjunct faculty and special consultant. Alexandros Postekkis who masterminded the entire initiative, is a graduate of the SDU and an active practitioner. Nikolas Tsaousis is also a graduate of architecture from the University of Nicosia and his special interests and thesis, with Dr Lapithis as his advisor, lay well within urbanism and social sustainability. The Students The student team consists of students of the Architecture programme and the Interior programme of the Department of Architecture, University of Nicosia. Nikiforou Ivi, Christofidou Christiana, Hatzigeorgiou Josephina, Alferova Anastasia, Chrysochos Andreas, Agamemnonos Louis, Psaroude Rafaella, Stylianou Georgia, Neokleous Rafaella
Project title: Green Design for Diversity Participants: Christiana Christofidou, Ivi Nikiforidou, Josephina Hadjigeorgiou Observation: The Ledra Palace site is a multi-culture area which gives the opportunity of connection at one point between the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot sides. However, the morphology of the ground and the physical and technical boundaries such as the vegetation, the wall of the moat and the transporting infrastructure do not allow access between the two communities. Proposal: The connection is now achieved by using bridges in order people can across one side to another and also have the opportunity to descend to the moat which is now transformed into an open green space. Project title: Wide Open Spaces Participants: Louis Agamemnonos, Andreas Chrysochos, Anastasia Alferova Observation: Observations of abandoned and inhabited space and also the different uses. There is a contrast in density of vegetation and porosity of the urban fabric Proposal: The proposal is based on the observations of contrast that exist within the urban fabric. It is an experiential path starting from two different locations, which are the House of Cooperation and the Arabahmet Mosque, since they are both important community landmarks. The propose of the path is to enhance the social interaction within the site and it has a flexible pattern in order to the different conditions.
Project title: Feel the Moat Participants: Rafaela Neokleous, Rafaella Psaroudes, Georgia Stylianou Observation: The time usage around the site was interesting as at the evening hours most of the area before the borders is not used. Activities around the site like restaurants, bars football courts, playgrounds, school were also noted down. The most emphasis was given to the boundaries found which are visibility boundaries, architectural and physical, and political boundaries, the borders. Thee is no connection from the one side the other having the moat as a vastness of empty space separating them physically but also politically Proposal: We proposed a grid of scaffoldings, that based on the observations, we will come to overlap the boundaries found and connect the two sides by creating different events. The users will have the flexibility to adjust their own uses on the scaffoldings and uses such as market, cafeteria, sleeping area and the stage are proposed