INB2IN Studio

Re-Reading the Site

Unit 6 explores sites and spaces of multiple identities. Through a process of disassembling we re-examine place by searching for the invisible and the non-measurable, as ‘archaeologist’ taking on board the unearthing of histories and conditions. The mapped site is marked with lines drawn in reference to events across time and space, revealing multiple identities. Sometimes blended, sometimes contrasted they expose contested boundaries and spaces.

Everyday history is unravelled through the literature of the streets, personal perspectives and everyday stories of inhabitants. The site is understood and recorded from a grassroots perspective. The overlapping urban qualities that are revealed through the ‘lived space’ of the city are of interest to us, creating sites of intensity and often contestation. We will identify these instances of intensity as sites of opportunity and hybridity.

Mapping

Representations of the site do not create a hierarchy of information but convey a bottom up order appropriate to the way the site is investigated. The processes of mapping and reading extend and enrich our interaction with the specific conditions of the site and allow the reader to understand and experience the unique characteristics of the place.

Hybridity

Hybridity as a particular condition that we are looking for. Searching for Hybrid states on the site assist us in going on to identify similar characteristics of ‘fusion’ through spatial, material and programmatic explorations at a later stage.

Hybridity, which may have been generated out of intolerance is explored for potential opportunities. Subsequently what is sought after is a new state which allows coexistence between various conditions and identities.

*Architecture UNIT: Architecture research Units based at the University of Nicosia are themed groups of 4th and 5th year architectural design studios that deal with particular architectural, political and topical issues.