A PATH TO RECONCILIATION BETWEEN CYPRIOTS [GREEKS & TURKS]
In 1974, a war has irrevocably separated Greeks & Turks in Cyprus. From then, the two communities have lived back to back, separated by an an impassable border. Omitting their shared history and roots, both communities developed on each side an irreconcilable antagonism ingrained for generations. Since 2006, a dialogue has been restored and more Cypriots are dreaming of a united island despite the Historical mutual distrust.
Cross-border/international
Cyprus
Cyprus
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Famagusta (Cyprus), is located at the border of divided Cyprus. It is at the interface between Greek Cyprus and Turkish Cyprus.
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
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As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Mikhalis Last name: Montarnier Gender: Male Age: 29 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
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First name: Theodossis Last name: Montarnier Gender: Male Age: 29 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
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Greeks & Turks Cypriots remain separated by a border since 1974. Peace talks since then have failed. This intractable conflict is known as the "Cypriot Conflict". Hope remains, but so does resentment and loss.
02. Famagusta : Neutral interface ,first step for Peace in Cyprus
While the control of land has always been conflicting, the sea is considered as a public good. It is the last neutral refuge for both communities; the only place where peace-building can take shape in mutual trust. The project is based on a timeless approach of common elements that unite Cypriots beyond their respective communities. The common elements are decayed in common Ruins, common Grounds & common Future.
Common Ruins : The abandoned suburb of Famagusta is a "no man's land" since 1974. These ruins are the outcome of a tragic common past, the demonstration of the peace talks failures. Ruins are turned into a cost-less resource to rebuild the coastline common facilities.
Common Grounds : A symbolic continuous infrastructure encloses common grounds to Turks and Greeks within a radical form capable to contain the chaos of the five passed decades and to hold out the five centuries to come. Architecture is meant to remain in a state of equilibrium despite the political, climatic & religious rifts.
Common Future : Above the sea, a continuous esplanade leads to a sanctuary of common knowledge. Emerging from the horizon, a community center, basis of a shared future, is the guarantor of an effective peace in Cyprus .
03. Learning from peace-building process
Divided by religious or ethnic patterns, countries all over the world face the same issues. Learning from the case study of Cyprus, the resolution of communautary disputes is deeply a matter of shared public interfaces.
Resilient
National Reconciliation
Building society
Community center
Post-conflict city
01. A societal rebirth
Sustainability embodies different meanings in this project. Common culture is what makes one single society. The project recalls through a summarized historic vocabulary, all cultural heritages claimed by Cypriots as their common roots. A memorial and a community center highlight the fraternal links that unite Greeks and
Turks. Cypriots finally can build their upcoming History in a shared place. They build together layer after layer the on-site concrete pillars of the community center that will shelter the first shared house for a common future.
02. Recycle + Reuse concrete waste
The projected shared interface, is built from recycled concrete waste. The buildings exposed to climate hazards are a danger for local population. What can not be repaired is crushed and reused to rebuild new infrastructures. The new matter carries people’s remembrances of a sentimental common past.
03. Building on site with local workforce
Constructive elements are recycled/produced with local materials/workforce. While beams and floor slabs are produced in the recycling factories, the pillars are casted on site by local workforce. Each day, a layer of concrete is added on each pillar by workers from both communities to reinforce the bounds that unite Greeks & Turks. These collective pillars hold the whole monument and Cyprus' society.
04. Adaptability to future uses
Acting as a dig to protect Famagusta's harbor, This collective monument is as a flexible and adaptable grid that allows versatility and future development of the current infrastructure. A Memorial and a library establish the perpetual duty of remembrance. Archiving memories, collecting times and testimonies in a sanctuary so that Cypriots can preserve a common history and collective memory. Sustainability means there, that the building carries enough resiliency to adapt to
the uses of today, but will be able to adapt to the uses needed in the upcoming 100 years.
01. Reclaiming the Sea
A journey across the sea calls Cypriots to introspection. While the concrete ruins of abandoned buildings are being transformed progressively
into common infrastructures, a silent place offers an overview of a country at yard for reunification and communities' peaceful coexistence. In an island that has been divided by religious and ethnic concerns, a neutral interface has to be non-partisan and shall embrace a new common culture. Religious symbols leave room for common Cypriot symbols.
02. A journey of forgiveness : a sensory experience
Cypriots who take the path of forgiveness, go through successive sensory experiences. The blinding light that reflects in the sea when crossing the footbridge, leads them to a dilemma. On one hand, one can travel in the depths of the memorial, witnessing all common roots and shared History to Greeks and Turks. History fragments are set up in sequences. This is not meant to be a museum. On the other hand, visitors can choose to go through the continuous esplanade above the
sea, witnessing finally the historic harbor and the the former abandoned city at yard for reconstruction. It is about a continuous spatial experience to
convene a reported period of Common Peace.
03. From common Grounds to common Future
A bridge crosses the void that has been dividing Greeks & Turks for 49 years. Below, the genuine and untouched land appears as common roots to both communities. The Sanctuary establishes a sentimental connection with the reality of a place through a specific and perceptive relationship with the surroundings. Healing the wounds of a 49 years lasting conflict to build peace in Cyprus, the continuous monument is an act of care and recovery for 200.000 lives that have been broken with the Cypriot Conflict. Finally, the Mediterranean sea offers a physical place for debate and community self-determination : A resilient structure for an adaptable future.
01. Famagusta : a case study for post-conflict cities
It is estimated that 40% of the Greek and over 50% of the Turkish Cypriot population of Cyprus , were displaced by the Turkish invasion of 1974. 165,000 Greek Cypriots and 45,000 Turkish Cypriots have been evicted and never returned home. In both communities, Cypriots are refugees in their own island. In this conflict, what was supposed a provisional evacuation shifted into a permanent exile. The project aims to translate the aspirations and needs of those refugees and their children into new shared places, and advocates as the only option for co-existence a reunited island of Cyprus.
02. Building a collective memory, shared by Greeks & Turks
It has been more than four decades that each community builds its own story as a unique victim of the Cyprus conflict, enhancing feelings of anger and injustice across generations. The project focuses not only on building a new shared environment but also to rebuild a collective memory. This memory held by the ancients is conveyed to young generations as a burden to carry. It has to shift towards a collective duty of remembrance and forgiveness to move on.
03. Building together an inclusive society
Cyprus had very few years of self-determination before it was once again under the aegis of more powerful states. Hence Cypriots have been tempted to reject their own identity to embrace the allied states. Before war, Famagusta was known as a cosmopolitan city at the forefront of education and culture. Building a collective society made of Greeks & Turks means a complete overhaul of political, institutional, and economic patterns in order to bound new ties. We involve in this societal process a wide broad of actors including NGO, politics, inhabitants from both sides. If no common ground is found within political talks, we believe it can be found in a bottom-up process. Taking back their self-determination, every Cypriot is free to live among a cosmopolitan society
The project takes place in Cyprus, an island with two communities (Greek and Turkish) separated by religion, culture and language.
The project is based on the testimonies of representatives of the civil society in these two communities. It traces the key elements that allowed at a given time (before the tragic events of the 1974 war) a peaceful coexistence.
This project of a common horizon is above all addressed to all those exiled on their own island, to all those people bruised by an internal war who only want to return home. It is a tribute to the lost and a manifesto for a plural society, composed of different individuals but sharing roots and a collective history. We hope that by highlighting the similarities, we can create a national union.
The community center that we are creating off Famagusta, is an identifiable physical place, symbol of a civil reunification through culture. But what is most important is not the architecture but what happens there. It is precisely there that Cypriots work together on their common identity, on their collective memory. It is from these points that a unified community can be born. Later on, once the national charter will have been drafted, this building will no longer be needed in its original form. It is planned to be converted into the National Library and a public space of remembrance.
The project comes after the failure of the talks between the Greek and Turkish communities in Crans Montana (Switzerland) under the auspices of the United Nations and Great Britain. This last chance agreement failed to federate the common interests of the communities. The difficulty of a national reconciliation project is that it depends on two factors that must be brought together. The first is the will of the political leaders directly involved. It is necessary that the two parties be in phase, at the same time for a reconciliation, which has rarely been the case during the 50 years of separation.
The ministerial and regional services of urban planning were consulted on both sides in order to know the future projects, the respective political wills.
We have gathered a community of experts from the academic world on both sides, in order to create a cross-border group, to exchange ideas, positions and ambitions for a reunified island.
There is thus upstream the construction of a narrative through the prism of the two communities rather than a subjective pro-community vision.
It is actually the first parties concerned: the exiled / the occupants who have made a real contribution to the development of the project.
Their contribution was not only a historical reconstruction of the events but also aspirations to move quickly towards a consensus. This bottom-up approach is quite unprecedented in the case of a post-conflict city.
Indeed, we have generally observed a political invective to reunification (Top Down) suffered by the populations.
In Cyprus this was not the case, the project is positively welcomed by the inhabitants and supported by a large majority. It is the citizens, the civil society, who now constitute a pressure group on their respective governments in order to move the lines at the national and extra territorial level.
This contribution is part of the spatial approach to attachment to place, which is still underdeveloped in architecture. Our objective is to identify different types of attachment that can exist in relation to a place, to analyze how this attachment manifests itself in relation to others and in the territory, and to understand the conditions under which an attachment to place can lay the foundations for a political commitment
The resilience of people whose History has crossed their destiny has allowed us to establish a narrative.
We have crossed the prisms of several discplines:
-Urban geography (mental maps drawn by the inhabitants or former inhabitants)
-Urban sociology and behavior (landmarks, symbolism)
-Resistance of materials (Recycling of ruined concrete buildings on the coast into structural concrete for the construction of the community center)
-Neuropsychiatry and psychoanalysis, based on the work of Boris Cyrulnik, theorist of the concept of resilience
Each of the representatives of the fields of competence called upon endeavoured to understand the complementary disciplines involved. This was done by actively seeking to understand the complementary disciplines involved, through thematic workshops and participatory working groups, with refugees and setlers. By combining field sessions and a small steering committee of experts, we have succeeded in keeping an open and evolving prospective approach, without preconceptions.
We were thus able to extract ourselves from the purely architectural questions that fall to a building, leaving the form aside and concentrating on the substance: a building and a public space capable of welcoming in a fraternal and sustained manner.
01. From a conflict area to a negotiated public space
Broadly speaking, worldwide, post conflict areas, have been rebuilt without considering the ability of shared public spaces to recreate social ties between communities. We have been investigating several post-conflict cities including Beirut, Belfast and Sarajevo, both with theoretical studies
and field trip reports. We realized that post conflict areas were thought without much consideration of shared interfaces. Indeed, in such contexts, even if the conflict is over, it lasts in the way public spaces are generally designed.
02. Post conflict areas : Shared public places, first step for mutual trust
The project we develop in Famagusta relies on Cypriots' remembrances and resiliency. Focusing on common struggle to reclaim the Mediterranean sea, we could set up a new common narrative to both communities. Studying mental maps of each community, we could define neutral interfaces, able to support a common project for both communities. We believe postconflict areas shall rebuild common infrastructure instead of preventing future disputes by isolating communities settlements. In Famagusta case, we set up a dialogue between the two communities identifying in their respective wills, what converges. Translating it in an inclusive design, the project intends to be much more than a shared infrastructure. It is a place of common forgiveness, a path through the Mediterranean Sea that was stolen from all of them. Rather than merely considering a national reconciliation as a solemn architectural symbol, we assume that most important places for inclusion and co-living are everyday-life common places: market, bridge,library, community center, shadehouses, coffees... The shared common infrastructure is flexible and answers to informal meetups, temporal appropriations or ephemeral events. We promote a mixed and melted urban fabric where boundaries vanish.
01.INVARIANTS / REPLICABILITY
The project is a manifesto for the reconciliation of former belligerents in post-conflict areas.
It is replicable in its methodology to post-conflict areas (Ireland, Lebanon, Angola, Iraq, ex-Yugoslavia, Germany...).
The project has a part of invariants and a part of adaptability to the specific context.
In its implementation, the project must be initiated in an interface zone, neutral between the two communities: It can be a place that evokes a strong symbol for both communities or a shared space but in no case a space linked to the domination of one over the other.
This interface is usually located near a friction zone. It is precisely from this neutral interface that a dialogue can emerge.
02.CHOICE OF PROGRAM
The program that brings the two communities together is important.
From our case studies and research we have identified three families of programs that fit into a collective cooperation and long-term vision:
-sports facilities: sport brings people together in the face of a common adversary (South Africa / Spring Box team in 1995)
-Cultural facilities: community centers work on a collective identity and a shared memory
-Public spaces: Gardens of memory, to create landmarks and honor the memory of the dead. This work of memory and collective mourning allows the conflict to be overcome collectively as long as these gardens are common and not mono-community (Northern Ireland - gardens of remembrance)
03.TRANSMISSION
The project implements artifacts capable of pedagogically transmitting a collective history to younger generations. In Cyprus, the young generations have grown up hating the one on the other side of the Wall. This transmission of memory and conflict is still holding back good relations between communities.
It is therefore essential in the project methodology to identify the material and immaterial means of transmission in order to symbolically create common valu
01. POST-CONFLICT CITIES: FACING URBICIDE
Urbicide refers to "violence that aims at the destruction of a city not as a strategic objective, but as an identity objective". It is the multiculturalism and the understanding between different communities, which is specific to certain cities, that excites the hatred of the destroyers "as if the city were the enemy because it allowed the cohabitation of different populations and valued cosmopolitanism".
02. THE CHALLENGES OF POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION: ACTING TOGETHER AROUND A SOCIAL PROJECT FOR PEACE
The challenge is to reconcile the different actors, domains and scales of reconstruction in order to put in place a social structure that can sustain peace. Reconstruction must be supported by a social project. The objective is not only to restore buildings, ministries, economic sectors and services, but also to rebuild a society, a nation. Almost everything has been destroyed and in particular the social links which have undergone several destructions. We must therefore take into consideration a need for meaning, for direction. It is a question of reinventing a true social project of peace from all the dimensions and times concerned.
03. TIME FOR PEACE
We have been witnessing a phenomenon of closing borders for two decades", which has accelerated in recent months, especially in Europe. Half of the current walls were built after 2010.
Cyprus, with its latent conflict of more than 50 years, its geographical position and its geopolitical context, is a very interesting case of post-conflict cohabitation.
Architecture takes on its full meaning here in order to heal the wounds of war and provide shelter to the victims of war and its consequences.
It is in the very matrix of the recycled concrete made of the ruins exposed to the climatic hazards, that the community center of tomorrow will welcome the pacified populations of Cyprus under a single banner with the objective: a common horizon.
