Thesis Statement
Monumentality can be seen as a culmination of consensus. However, when consensus is not present, fur-
thermore, when disagreements construct the dialog, the architecture that mediates this dialog becomes a
monument itself. Walls, dividing territories and cities around the world, have become dreadful monuments
within our collective imaginary. Imposed separation lines, they reinforce the differences between ethnic
groups and become long-term markers of a failed dialogue.
This thesis takes a Spatialized model of disagreement, the university, and constructs a new urban typology
able to mediate conflicted zones through notions of programmed monumentality. It challenges a border
condition and actively erodes a hard line within a city by strategic insertions of "encounter-platforms" for
the two communities.
Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus has been scarred by historical events that have created a series of unique
conditions throughout the city fabric. A swatch of land running from East to West and varying in width be-
tween 3 m and 18 m has been imposed to split the city in two ethnically uniform halves. This thesis pro-
poses an International Erasmus University inside the Green Line breaking the four-decade-old stalemate
between the two communities. With students acting as effective diplomats, the exchange of ideas and
opinions will aim to dismantle the firmly established psychological division between the two communities.
The project creates a series of urban and architectural interventions in the city in order to stitch the un-
productive separation of the territory, by proposing a series of programmatic nodes in place of the original
market street. The new typology reinvents the city center and implements new points of interaction while
activating the decayed urban fabric around the Green Line. The demilitarized zone is then turned into a
park for the city and the university which facilitates the ease of pedestrian traffic from the two originally
divided cities.