Destroying the Moat

As my grant period comes to an end I am in the process of writing a paper on my analysis of the moat surrounding the walls of Nicosia as a unifying landscape and monument that could be helped tremendously by a rehabilitation and management plan. However the moat is changing continuously, especially along the southern edge of the city, as the existing parkways and bridges that were recently redesigned are now under construction.

The following pictures were taken only two weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon near Eleftheria (Freedom) square where a large population of female Asian immigrants gathered and spent their afternoon. Notice that much of the space, especially the shaded areas, are being used by the women as picnic areas and that the trees and flowers are in full bloom.

However, in an attempt to bridge the contemporary central business district with the historic walled city, the square was opened to a design competition for redesign. The plans designed by the firm of famous architect Zaha Hadid were selected in 2005 as the winners of the competition which is only now beginning to be realized in preparation for Cyprus' role as the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in June 2012. Delay in development of the plan has been the result of public backlash against the design and also due to archaeological excavations that have uncovered a lower part of the bastion that was altered during the colonial period as well as human remains that are thought to have been dumped in the moat by the Ottoman army following their siege of the city in 1570.

The project calls for the transplant or removal of over 200 trees and includes plans to pour hundreds of cubic feet of concrete into a historic monument to create an unshaded public space in a place that reaches temperatures upwards of 100 degrees for most of the summer. Also notice in the rendering provided on her website that the buildings inside and outside of the iconic city walls are presented exactly the same so as to blur the line of what is the historic and contemporary settlement, which is a main objective of her design.

http://www.zaha-hadid.com/masterplans/eleftheria-square

If you have a minute, I also suggest you check out this rendered video of what the site will look like. I guess the bubbles over the square are to protect from the outrageous heat in Nicosia during the summer.

Well the destruction began just the other day when they completely cleared out the same portion of the moat that I showed in the above photos.

One of the only positive assets I can see in the plan is that it will draw more attention to the moat and the walls as a monument of the historic city center. Unfortunately, this has been done through the displacement of the life that existed within the moat.