AA Visiting School- Cyprus UN Buffer Zone

Aug 23rd to Sep 3rd – Architecture Research Center [ARC] – University of Nicosia – Cyprus

https://cyprus.aaschool.ac.uk/

Agenda

The island of Cyprus is currently split into north and south parts separated by the UN Buffer Zone, an 180km dividing line that encompasses a small portion of almost every terrain type and urban morphology one can encounter on the island. The objective of the AA Cyprus Visiting School is to map this territory that occupies 3% of the country’s total area, over a series of annually recurring workshops. Investigating one section per year, we will be designing urban scenarios of rehabilitation and computational strategies of projected development, with the aim being to document, analyse and speculate on the future of the entirety of the UN Buffer Zone in the case of a political solution to the division of Cyprus

Computational urbanism

Our approach towards the future rehabilitation of the UN Buffer zone is based on an agenda of associative digital urban design.

Having been abandoned for 38 years now, the development of territories lying within the Buffer Zone has been brought to a practical standstill. Our aim will be to re-instantiate this development, fast-forwarding into the near future and speculating on the sprawling tendencies or predicted demise of the Green Line’s urban or rural fabric. Computation and the creation of our own associative tools will enable these architectural speculations to take place. In response to this design intent, during the AA Visiting School there is going to be intensive tuition by experienced tutors in the following software platforms:

– Rhino

– Grasshopper for Rhino

– Nudibranch plugin

– Python scripting for Rhino and Grasshopper

Through Rhino and Grasshopper we will address and articulate the landscape topology and existing urban context, while the Nudibranch plugin will be used in order to introduce agency and differentiation into the selected sites, guiding their future development and potential sprawl. Python scripting will be taught and utilized as a tool to augment the linear-computation processes of  Grasshopper and introduce recursive functions to simulate development scenarios.

Tutors

Pavlos Fereos

Kostas Grigoriadis

Michalis Georgiou

Alkis Dikaios