Healing the liminal space: a student project on the Nicosia buffer zone

On 17th October 2008 twelve sixth year architecture students from the School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering at the Queen’s University Belfast were granted unprecedented access by the United Nations to enter the buffer zone of Nicosia’s walled city. This was a unique opportunity to experience and survey the selected sites for their senior theses design proposals which targeted the liminal space contained in the buffer zone since its complete physical division in 1974 and aimed at reuniting the walled city through urban design and architecture. This paper firstly explains the context of the study and the role of the Nicosia Master Plan in reshaping Nicosia’s urban growth. It then summarizes students’ experience conducting the two the field trips to Nicosia. And finally it presents the design contributions from the 12 students, the design challenges they faced and the important topics that emerged.