Mo man's Land, rebuilding of Famagusta, DIA Booklet

transcript

No Man’s Land Projectinternational parametric urbanism workshop

Rebuilding FamagustaNicosia, 22nd March - 12th April 2010

Content

General Informationworkshop scopeexisting situationparametric agendaissues to be adressediconic buildingsinstitutions and curators participatingdia projects introduction

DIA - Team 1research and proposalanimation instancesstl models

DIA - Team 2research and proposalanimation instancesstl models

Photos

General Information

WORKSHOP SCOPE

How can one practice parametrics when no parameters are to be found, when no variables can be set? How can one deal with absence or predict the upcoming presence? Which rehabilitation plans can be implemented for an abandoned city whose residents want to return to their original house-holds and built environment?

Existing Situation

Every four or fi ve years since 1974 the issue of opening the abandoned and fenced city, that lies inside the Green line in Cyprus, is brought forward. This sparks on the island a recurring, yet fruitless, discussion with government and state institutions on one side and the refugees, individually or collectively, on the other. The discussion is based on the argument whether the city should be returned right away in its current condition to its inhabitants or it should be kept fenced for some years more in order to be restored and rebuild, since after 35 years of abandonment virtually all its infrastructure, if not the whole

built environment, is not reusable and beyond repair.

Engineers consider it an ideal chance to rebuild a whole city with “proper” urban planning and infrastructure that any other thriving city wouldn’t allow. Unlike the case of Brasilia, the fact of an empty city that its inhabitants are relocated merely a few kilometers away creates an unprecedented oppor-tunity to create an innovative urban space for an already existing and long-ing to return population.

The rightful inhabitants on the other side, who have been waiting for decades to return, bring forth the argument that they want to return to the same city they left (in an instant moment) and not to a new, maybe “improved”, but nonfamiliar city. Their right to return is safeguarded by their right to property.

This workshop is based on the hypothetical event of the return of the aban-doned and fenced for 35 years city of Famagusta to its former inhabitants.

Parametric Agenda

How can parametric urban tools address this confl ict and bring forth argu-ments for preparing the city for rehabilitation while maintaining its very own aspects that kept the longing for return alive 35 years on?

Which parametric system will address better quantifi ed elements as prop-erty, circulation or growth along with nonquantifi ed elements as collective memory? And according to which growth or growthestimates will the system be set upon, when any growth has been halted since 1974?

These are varied exceptions from any usual urban project and create a chal-lenging environment for architects to act upon through parametric tools.

Issues to be addressed

Iconic Figure. Today the city has evolved from a living space into an iconic fi gure symbolizing the return of every refugee to his or her house, regardless if that is located in Famagusta or not.

The image of the waterfront functions as an iconic representation of what used to be and of what fell apart in an instant. A profi table industry was set upon that image, printing stamps, postcards and making souvenirs, while ev-ery reference on the Cyprus confl ict by the media is usually accompanied by that same image.

The participants have to address this issue by looking behind propaganda images that followed the 1974 war and by identifying, according to their cri-teria, whether the value of the waterfront is as worthy as its remembrance claims, and act according to their decisions during the design process.

Private Properties. Although they are of course widespread throughout the city, the image of the waterfront is misleading since the large tall buildings are not all discrete touristic hotel properties but instead they have a large

amount of private owners, thus making the decisions for the future of each one a decision of many. Furthermore each single refugee expects to return to their original property, regardless whether that is inhabitable or not, valu-able or not.

The participants have to address this issue by trying to fi nd a balance be-tween the rights to return private property with the reconstruction of whole areas of the city and the possibility of required mass demolitions.

Iconic Buildings

Participants need to address the issue of buildings that carry, after the war, a symbolic meaning that resembles the events that led to the abandonment of the city. Despite the negative value of a 35 years period of absence, one should not consider a simple“refurbishment” would be enough to push things forward.

“As well as providing a protective carapace, these structures also carry sym-bolic value, and can been seen as being continuous with and emerging from life of those who inhabit the built environment.” Gordon Pask The City as a Living Organism. Since the city is empty it cannot be truly regarded as one, since its population is regarded as the primary element for its existence, al-though undoubtedly, this spatial “shell” is still very much alive and continu-ously evolving even without inhabitants.

Although concrete buildings collapsing in time by laying unprotected against the acidity of the salty sea air and cracks on pavement from plants grow-ing, cannot be considered as traditional city development procedures, that doesn’t necessarily mean that this spatial shell is not adapting or adjusting to the environment in a way equally effective than before when it used to be inhabited.

Therefore one needs to address the city as a living organism and understand how it evolved without population for almost 4 decades, in contrast to its evolution with population for 3 millenniums.

“What struck him most, though, wasn’t the absence of life but its vibrant presence. With the humans who built Famagusta gone, nature was intently recouping it.” Alan Weisman, The World Without Us Political Statement. The symbolic status of the city has large political meaning for the Cypriot politi-cal system. Famagusta is present in most of the political discussions between Greek and Turkish Cypriots concerning a solution to the Cypriot problem, it is even present in arguments between Greek Cypriot parties themselves. Any-thing proposed concerning the city carries along a political statement to-wards the Cypriot political establishment and it must be negotiated as such. Although the workshop will remain in a purely architectural context and will not enter political or historical fi ngerpointing regarding events that led to the current situation of the city, participants are advised to atleast speculate on the political reactions their proposal might raise.

INSTITUTIONS AND CURATORS PARTICIPATING

Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture DRLTheodore Spyropoulos, B.Arch(Hons) [NJ], AA.DRLCoDirector of the Design Research Lab (London) / MinimaformsVisiting Research Fellow at MIT and curates the AA New Media Research ini-tiative. He has been a research fellow at the Architectural Association inves-tigating sensorial environments 2002-2004 and has taught in the graduate schools of the University of Pennsylvania and the Royal College of Art. He has worked as a project architect for the offi ce of Peter Eisenman.

Dessau Institute of Architecture (DIA) – Graduate SchoolChristos K Passas, B.Arch(Hons), AA Grad.Des.Dipl Zaha Hadid Architects, UK/ DIA (Dessau), DE / Architectural Association DRL, UK Associate Director at Zaha Hadid Architects has been practicing throughout the world and has lead the designs for buildings such as the Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg the OPUS, Dubai and is project partner for Eleftheria square in Cyprus among others. Guest DAAD Professor at DIA (Bauhaus) Dessau teaching a Master’s studio course on Algorithmic Design since Sept. 2008and DRL Tutor at the Architectural Association in London UK since 2007.

DELFT University of Technology – The Why FactoryTihamer Hazarja Salij, MFA (University of Utrecht), MRes (London University)Tihamér Salij is a researcher and spatial designer. He specialized in audio-visual communications at the Willem de Kooning Academy and architectural design at the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam. He had been working at the architectural offi ce MVRDV as a researcher and editor, as a lecturer at the Academy of Technology and Innovation in Amersfoort and Utrecht and had been the coordinator of its Media Faculty. Tihamér Salij is the founder of Space Intelligence Agency (SIA), a research and design practice based in Rotterdam. Tihamér Salij is currently conducting research on the notion and experience of space and time in relation to the imagination and visualization of the human future with particular focus on the conception of Utopia, Dysto-pia, Paradise and the Ideal City.

National Technical Universisty of Athens (NTUA)Dimitris Papalexopoulos, NTUA Greece, D.P.L.G., Dr Paris I. Assoc. Professor, School of Arthitecture NTUA / ArchsignGraduate course on digital fabrication and post-graduate course on “Ar-chitecture and Information Technology”. Organization of international sym-posiums on Intelligent Environments (IE06-IE08). Author of Digital Regionalism,

2008 and (with Eleni Kalafati) of Takis Zenetos, Visioni digitali, architetture construite, 2006. Archsign, develops building design concepts for I.T. evolving space activities. His design practice includes renovations and new buildings projects in the private and public sector. Recent architectural works refers to the integration of space and information technology.

Webpage of the workshop - http://nomanslandproject.com

INTRODUCTION

With the exception of Pompei and perhaps Chernobil, the city of Famagusta, stands today as a unique worldwide example of a city without residents.

A city left behind in time, with no one allowed to live in it. It stands still and isolated as if in a surrealists dream: A desolate landscape, only a sad parallax of it’s former iconic seaside view, reminiscent of images from Antonioni’s fi lm “The Eclipse”. A product perhaps of an anachronistic point of view.

Yet, what is now called a “No Man’s Land zone” remains an example of a city that in its infant state of growth, maintains all the potential for becoming an Every Man’s Land. A City for all people.

What can one do? What can be proposed as a future? How can the issues that led to this condition be resolved?

We looked at the issue of Famagusta through the lens of parametric design:A desing process of no fi xed result, no ideal scenario, but rather a set of con-ditions that we aim to formulate through basic values: Integration, Intercon-

nectivity, Inclusivity and Openness.

THE INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE PROJECT

The Integrated landscape project aims to capture a sense of the open city problem through architectural research that takes on the example of the re-opening of the No Man’s Land in Famagusta.

This approach deals with the issue not in a strictly political or developmental or ecological terms but in a combination of all, within a parametric frame-work that aims to capture the condition of development through time, popu-lation growth, interconnectedness and ecological sustainability. These issues or parameters are critical because they are all positive contributors to the Utopian idea.

In other words, a parametric system is not merely an elastic system as it is often referred to, but becomes a game fi eld of forces, sometimes confl uent and sometimes opposing. These force-fi elds generate nonetheless, a sense of fl uctuation. A pulse if you like. This pulse can take its primary beat from either of the parameters involved, but there is always a simultaneous play of all,

either at higher or lower intensities.

The integrated landscape project aims to retract from the purely modernist paradigm of strict zoned master-planning and aims to generate localities by the insertion of events whether these are static –as in urban plazas and spac-es- or ephemeral events that are produced by the participation of people. As such, it produces a radical distinction towards Generation rather than Cre-ation of an always-already contemporary Utopia. Through this research were one looks at the whole spectrum of Architecture, one begins to formulate intermediate aims such as the liberation of space through the enactment of entropic forms of order that give rise to more elastic conditions.

The participating students from both DIA and the UCY were split into two groups operating towards the same end with differentscenaria.

DIA - Team 1

Fluid parametric Patterns

Research and Proposal

Tutor:Anastasia Globa

Team:Claudia Melendez (Nicaraguan)Alexander Kalachev (Russian) Wang Qi (Chinese)Antri Kounnapi (Cypriot)Andraulla Papadopoulou (Cypriot)

Team 1 investigates the premise of fl uid parametric patterns.

These patterns are generated by a series of kaleidoscopic transformations that give rise to a multiplicity of confi gurations that are tested for viability. Some of these conditions can be based on the existing urba network of the city and on future expansion speculations either horizontally or vertically.

Whenever, the fi xity of a pattern is achieved it can become a premise for realization; Other combinatory realities, always exist in the background and can emerge either as limited entities to provide a secondary fabric when conditions of differentiated variability are required, or as fi xed/ stable entities

such as archaeological areas, landmarks etc.

The project takes its start from an investigation of the cultural artefacts of a 2,500 year Cypriot history and distils graphic patterns as ways to generate culturally biased starting points.

Each historical era is given a representative pattern, as a design mechanism for instrumentalizing cultural diversity. The starting patterns are mutated through a series of generations until a matrix of sub-genes are developed that bridge the given distinctions. Nonetheless, each pure pattern is allowed to maintain a small area within the generated matrix.

Animations - instances

DIA - Team 2

Polycentric Multilateral Network Growth

Research and Proposal

DIA - Team 2 tutor: Tudor Cosmatu

Team members:Irina Mihaela BogdanWan DaShi XinyuKyriaki Economou(UCY)Stella Taousioni (UCY)

Team 2 investigates polycentric multilateral growth.

The main city, Famagusta is simulated as a strong gravitycenter (main set of attractors) in an animated fl uid system that incorporates the inclusion of sec-ondary city centres (nodes), such as those of Paralimni, Dherynia, Ayia Napa, Engomi and Salamis etc that are given lesser degrees of gravity.

The project is simulated with the premise of gradual growth from the current 50,000 people/ residents-capacity, to that of 100,000 to 150,000 to 250,000 and 500,000.

Each node (urban or sub-urban center) is let to extend and connect to the

surrounding tissue through hierarchical network growth. Slowly, each sub-centre seems to interconnect and beyond a certain limit the city develops a highly dense concentrated centre against the sea shore connecting fi rst the two major nodes that of downdown Famagusta and that of Protaras.

Secondary sub-centers grow towards these two while each of these nodes maintains its own distinct characteristics that emanate outwardly towards the west and north.

The animated fi eld is responsive to these conditions of growth and the whole network of centres oscillates within the same system of forces. The centres develop through time and population growth and in some cases unite to form a continuous network and in others generate conditions of distanced responsiveness, as if nodes following the same musical beat.

At a certain stage of development these centres begin to transform internal-ly. They gain partial self-suffi ciency and develop their own clusters of urban facilities: public spaces, recreation areas, retail, services, business etc.

Famagusta Growth Timeline

Possible Growth Directions - Density Studies

Network Growth Patterns

Functional Infl ation of Space

50 000 people scenario

50 000 people Cube

150 000 people Cube

250 000 people Cube

500 000 people SUPERCube

Directions of Expansion

1st Stage of Expansion

2nd Stage of Expansion

3rd Stage of Expansion

4th Stage of Expansion

Regional Land Usage

existing situation

Regional Land Usage

proposed situation

Regional Network

Local Network

Functional Clusters

business center

Functional Clusters

touristic clusters

Functional Clusters

comercial clusters

Functional Clusters

public cluster

Functional Clusters

residential clusters

Functional Clusters

residential clusters

Animations - instances

Network Expansion

Network ExpansionNetwork Expansion

Functional Infl ation

Famagusta Expansion

Famagusta Expanstion

Famagusta Expansion

Photos

Thanks to:

We herby would like to thank the organizers, Pavlos Fereos, Alkis Dikaios and Kostas Grigoriadis, and sponsors for inviting the DIA Teams to take part in this intense event and for making it possible for this workshop to take place. It was a pleasure to work in the UCY studio together with all the other participants and to learn from eachother.

We would also like to thank the municipality for providing us the much needed infor-mation and for suporting this event.

Many thanks to our curator and professor Christos K Passas for the time invested in this workshop and for giving us the chance to experience what it is like to take part in such an event.

Special thanks to Dessau Institute of Architecture for supporting such initiatives.

Last but not least we would like to thank our UCY and DIA team members (Kyriaki Economou, Antri Kounnapi, Andraulla Papadopoulou, Stella Taousioni, Irina Bogdan, Claudia Melendez, Wan Qi, Wan Da, Alexander Kalachev and Shi Xinyu) for the hard work and commitment to the projects.

Anastasia Globa and Tudor Cosmatu

Mo man's Land, rebuilding of Famagusta, DIA Booklet

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