Δημήτρης Ιωάννου
Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου

Η Διπλωματική Εργασία του Δημήτρη Νικολάου με τίτλο NICOSIA’S PLACES OF TRANSITION \\ TRANSITIONAL SPACES Dislocation Abandonment Relocation, διαγωνίστηκε στα Βραβεία Φοιτητών Αρχιτεκτονικής 2023 που διοργανώνει ετησίως ο Σύλλογος Αρχιτεκτόνων Κύπρου και απέσπασε το Α’ Βραβείο.

Επιβλέποντες Καθηγητές: Πόπη Ιακώβου, Κωνσταντίνος Αβραμίδης, Χρήστος Παπαστεργίου

This project begins with the Old Nicosia Airport (1968), an unreachable building inside the buffer zone. It constitutes an example of the modernist architecture that embodies Marc Auge’s notion of ‘non-place’. After the Turkish invasion of 1974 it was transformed into a place of memory that is an integral part of the island’s identity.

Today the Walled city of Nicosia is going through a state of transition, where many abandoned buildings, that were evacuated during and after the invasion, are becoming places of transition for the immigrant population. The project aims at transforming a proposed ‘generic space’ with characteristics of a ‘non-place’ into an infrastructure that will allow the adoption of a new multicultural identity by it is multinational users.

As Rem Koolhaas argues the ‘ultra-modern spaces’, which have a generic design, have the advantage of not being bound to pre-existing identities and unique characteristics of a place. On the contrary, they provide the possibility of creating a new narrative for the identity of the place. Therefore, the purpose of this speculative project is to create unfinished “generic spaces” that will be complemented, converted and transformed by the different users and their diverse identities.