Any attempt to understand the rapid transformation of territories in the 21st century, reveals the inherent shifting of landscapes, the ‘movement’ of boundaries thus, a continuous struggle for their redefinition through conflicts and exclusions. Cyprus and its inherent division act as one of the frontiers to the EU. The aim of this workshop is to explore the construction and practice of such liminal spaces from an interdisciplinary perspective with particular
reference to Cyprus. What dictates the organization and management of
these liminal spaces?

Could such liminal spaces be related to a larger genre of boundaries present in the contemporary urban environments? What is their role in contemporary urban societies of continuous fragmentations and reconnections? How do they relate to different kinds of mobility encouraged by the so called ‘globalise world’? How do they inscribe on material environments and become social and psychological
separations?

In what ways knowledge about such spaces can be used in order to revisit the urban environment? In what ways such limit conditions become part of productive spatial strategies and tactics in order to encourage public engagement between fragmented elements separated by the limit. And how they can be turned into porous interfaces? What is the role of Visual culture/architecture/media in such spaces?

This interdisciplinary seminar will take place within the Department of Architecture (University of Cyprus) and will bring together scholars and practitioners from the Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Palestine, Turkey and the UK. In the aim to create a platform of exchange and production around the diverse experiences of the above mentioned fields.

The participants of this seminar/workshop will be involved in fieldwork and roundtable discussions, public lectures, film-screenings and guest lectures to students of the Department of Architecture (UCY).

From Wednesday 5th of November (or Tuesday 4th) up to Saturday 8th of November 2008

A joint venture between:

Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus (UCY)

Matrix East Research Lab (MERL), University of East London (UK)

Centre for Research Architecture (CRA), Goldsmith’s Gollege,
University of London (UK)

Department of Architecture, University of Thessalia, Volos, Greece,

Project initiators:

Angela Melitopoulos (CRA, MERL), Socrates Stratis (UCY), Eyal Sivan(MERL), Aristides Antonas (UTGR)

Project co-ordinator: Pavlina Paraskevaidou