Nicosia on the island of Cyprus is the only capital in the world to be still divided and is the backdrop to the stark contrast between the Turkish world of Islam and the Western World of the Greeks. Since 1974 a demilitarized buffer zone, the Green Line, has physically divided the city and indeed the entire island in two.

The first time I visited Nicosia, I noticed that the closer I got to the Green Line, the greater the feeling of menace and tension became. Army watchtowers in and along the no man's land of the buffer zone and the barbed-wire fencing brought me face to face with the reality of a divided capital.

This had such an impact on me that I decided to devote my final-year project to this bizarre and at the same time unique subject, one of the most extreme cultural barriers in Europe. The upshot of the Green Line is a city split in two at the very heart of the old town. And that while this historic town centre with its origins in Roman times holds a treasure-house of things past within its fortifications. I went in search of spatial and architectural means of eventually reuniting the two cultures. This unique situation requires an unconventional approach owing to its sensitive nature. The task I set myself is to develop out of the historical and cultural context a strategy that would stimulate the process of cultural change and regeneration in the heart of the old town.

The core of my project consists of three anchors acting as hubs of urban activity in combination with a spatial framework at the exact place of today's demilitarized zone. In the first instance, the strategy is to gradually step up the pressure on the edges of the buffer zone and the UN-controlled link between the two halves of Nicosia. Thereafter, anchors could be created as a condition for regeneration and cultural exchange between the two parts of the old town. These anchors hold cultural and commercial facilities that bind the two cultures across the divide. The three anchors are hitched to key historical routes, their architecture and spatial significance elevating them to new icons for the city. Step by step, the areas between the anchors are reallotted on the basis of two parallel routes issuing from the two cultures. These routes form new structures assembled from the formal idiom of the two cultures. This gives a 'typical' Greek street with small squares and a 'typical' Turkish street with, behind the street elevation, courtyards where urban life is enacted.

The plan this ultimately produced must be seen as a possible outcome. This depends heavily on the political situation and how the two cultural groups work together on building their city. The possible outcome therefore shows just how much flexibility is possible within a strong spatial structure. Call it organized spontaneity.

With 'Past the Green Line' I have tried to show that creating the right conditions can strengthen mutual trust between the two cultural groups. This reunites what were once opposing cultures, whose combined presence now has a power that gives the city of Nicosia greater appeal.

Place of education: AvB Amsterdam | Specialization: urban design | Tutors: Milos Bobic, Mark Eker, Northon Flores