Project presentation and award ceremony
The Department of Architecture [ARC], cordially invites you to the event “Urban Conditioning: Regenerating the Historic Centre of Geri”, which will showcase the projects developed as part of the preparation of a study on the reformation of Geri central square.
The projects are the result of a collaboration between the University of Nicosia (UNIC), Department of Architecture, and the Municipality of Geri. They were developed within the Urban Design Studio, a research laboratory at UNIC, under the guidance of teaching faculty and with the active involvement of the Geri Municipality. The results are intended to provide a basic groundwork and an inventory of directives for future endeavours of the Municipality.
The locale (or “site”) under study is the historic centre of Geri municipality. Geri has historically been a farming community on the south-east outskirts of Nicosia but, in recent years, has been rapidly developing into a considerably large suburb. The majority of current building development is active in the periphery of Geri. The historic centre is relatively stagnant, still inhabited, but lacking in residential, commercial and civic activity.
The thematic behind the projects was “Urban Conditioning”. The overall objective was to consider architectural and planning strategies on a wider urban scale and towards the positive future development of an existing community in the historic centre of Geri. The term “conditioning” implies a process via which spatial environments are equipped and capacitated through design propositions towards specific desired “conditions”.
The objectives set for the studio project aimed at reactivating the forces that bring vibrancy back to the historic centre of Geri, in order to help regenerate the wider area. To this end, the Geri Municipality and the residents/community were regarded as the “patron/client”, with their concerns, wishes and desires taken into consideration, with the academic-research group focused on delivering “pragmatic”, “realistic”, “popular”, and “feasible” solutions.
