En-Di-Re Vision of the Buffer Zone — An Embodied Negotiation of the De Facto Boundary
Andreas Nicolaou
Description
En-Di-Re Vision of the Buffer Zone — An Embodied Negotiation of the De Facto Boundary is a design-led, curatorial investigation of the UN Buffer Zone in the walled city of Nicosia. The artwork re-situates the boundary inside the exhibition space through models, cartographies, phototopographic fragments, material constructions and projected views, transforming a politically imposed division into an embodied field of observation and negotiation.
Responding to the festival theme of FLOWS, the work examines the buffer zone as a space where flows are simultaneously interrupted and sustained. Streets, visual corridors, memories, materials and everyday movements are cut, redirected or suspended by the de facto boundary, while traces of connection continue to circulate through archival maps, urban fragments and acts of looking. Flows here are not understood only as smooth movement, but also as blockage, tension, leakage and resistance.
Through the three operations En-Vision, Di-Vision, and Re-Vision, the project asks how a divided urban condition can be seen otherwise, inviting visitors to move around, look across and reconsider the boundary as a living spatial and perceptual condition.
Affiliations
The project was developed as part of the diploma project En-Di-Re Vision of the Buffer Zone — An Embodied Negotiation of the De Facto Boundary at the Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus.
All project views, interpretations and representations are those of the author and do not represent the official position of any institution, organisation or political body.
CREDITS
Diploma Project by Andreas Nicolaou.
Supervisor: Dr. Konstantinos Avramides.
Advisory Committee: Prof. Panayiota Pyla, Kyriacos Miltiadous.
Project, concept, design, drawings, models, installation, curatorial development and photography by Andreas Nicolaou.
Fabrication and technical support: FabLab, Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus.
Andreas Nicolaou
Andreas Nicolaou is an emerging architectural designer and spatial researcher based in Nicosia, Cyprus. A recent graduate of the Department of Architecture at the University of Cyprus, he holds an Integrated Master in Architectural Engineering.
His work operates at the intersection of architecture, curatorial practice, spatial research, memory, representation and contested urban conditions. Through drawings, models, installations, archival material and site-based investigations, he explores how political, social and perceptual boundaries shape spaces. His practice is particularly interested in the ways architecture can make visible conditions of division, absence, access and embodied experience.
His diploma project, En-Di-Re Vision of the Buffer Zone — An Embodied Negotiation of the De Facto Boundary, was presented at the Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, from 12 to 24 May 2026. The project investigates the UN Buffer Zone within the walled city of Nicosia as a spatial and perceptual condition, combining architectural research with curatorial and installation-based methods.
Alongside his academic work, he has contributed to public space and tactical urbanism projects, developing an interest in participatory spatial practices and small-scale urban interventions.
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