Porous Border | The green line of Nicosia

Porous Border from Beetroot Design Group on Vimeo.

     Video for the participation of Cyprus in the 10th Biennale of Architecture in Venice, 2006, entitled "Porous Borders" 

     10 groups of architects were asked to present projects conserning the Green Line and the dead zone, that crosses the historical center of Nicosia.  

    Curators of the exhibition are the architects Morpho Papanikolaou and Irena Sakellaridou and guest curator is the architect Memos Philippides. Commissioner of the exhibition on behalph of Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture is Petros Dymiotis and deputy commissioner is Stavroulla Andreu. 

    The participating architects and artists are: M. Christodoulides, Chr. Christodoulou & E.Bozatli | Chr. Chrysanthou | M. Danou & S. Floridou | Epi tessera Architects (G. Georgiou, G. Paroutis, E. Parouti, M. Charalambidou) | Chr. Hadjichristou, D. Ioannides | Y. Hadjichristou, P. Konstantinou & V. Antoniou | E. Papachristou & D. Irwin | Gr. Patsalosavvis | P. Philippou, A. Antoniou & A. Swiny | S. Stratis & M. Loizidou. Coorganizers of the exchibition are the Cyprus Architects Association and the Architects Association of CCEAA. 

     The exhibition, at the Gallery Mondattori in Venice, will be open to the public from 10th September to 19th November 2006. 

     The 10th Biennale Architecture, directed by Richard Burdett, will investigate the interactions between cities, architecture and society. It aspires to bring forth the wealth and variety of the urban convention through the presentation of projects that investigate the broader socio-economic aspects of the interaction between architecture and society. At the same time, national participations will have the opportunity to reveal the plethora and diversity of their particular urban conditions. 

    The participation of Cyprus in this year’s 10th Biennale intends to highlight the issue of the dead zone in Nicosia, contained within the historical centre of the city (wall-enclosed part). The proposal suggests an open, experimental, approach of exploring the nature of the border and its dead zone, and the possibility of its negation by means of architectural projects that restore porosity. 

    The scope of the proposal is to examine the intermediate space and its interfaces and to explore the competence of architecture in interpreting the dual, alternating character of the area, its exclusive idiosyncrasy as an urban reality and as the sole ground in the world map that offers such experience.