Training schools

Hybrid Heritagescapes as Urban Commons in Mediterranean Cities: accessing the deep-rooted spatial interfaces of cities
Local Organizer: The Cyprus Institute
30 October to 3 November 2017 / Nicosia, Cyprus

DESCRIPTION & OBJECTIVES

Objective of the Training Event is to discuss about and develop digital interfaces and interactive narratives, which will contribute to the exploitation of heritage in Mediterranean cities for the reactivation of neglected urban green spaces through playful engagement, gamification, and storytelling. Heritage can be used to influence positively the social cohesion of neighbourhoods as it could be promoted in such a way that, instead of provoking tensions and division, would offer spaces of inclusion, interesting everyday experiences and provide a sense of belonging to socially excluded communities. The Training Event will study the capacity of ICT for learning and social interaction opportunities in territories of heritage (heritagescapes) that now extend to include urban squares and parks. Overarching goal of this effort is to promote these open air spaces in becoming part of the everyday life of a city, i.e., part of the network of its communal amenities and common resources, in order to contribute to the well-being and quality of life of citizens.

AREAS OF INTEREST

  • Heritage as driver for urban regeneration and resilience in Mediterranean cities
  • Participation, co-creation and co-management of built heritage and historic sites
  • Civic interaction in and the design of public spaces
  • ICT, interactive storytelling, play and digital art in public space
  • New urban sites / integration of forgotten sites in the everyday of the city
  • Hybrid heritage-scapes as public space

EXPECTED OUTPUTS

During the workshop trainees will learn about the Mediterranean city and will be occupied with the repurposing of the moat of the medieval fortification of the historic city of Nicosia from being used as parking space, and other fragmentary private uses, into a public space that highlights the only shared heritage that unites the two sides of the divided city, that is, its Medieval Walls.

In particular we envision the following outputs:

  • Interaction design concepts, Graphic User Interface mock ups and prototypes for an Augmented Reality feature of the TOOL WAY CyberParks (http://cyberparks-project.eu/app/monitoring-tool), piloting the urban park of the moat and the history of the Medieval Walls, in order to contribute to CyberParks objective for research about the opportunities of ICT usage in public spaces;
  • Unique opportunity of applying CyberParks concepts to contested heritage-scape of the last divided capital in Europe, considering the cultural function of public spaces; and,
  • Visual content for the mobile app (e.g., collages, photographs, diagrams, videos) and scenarios of interaction according to historical narratives and the contemporary life of the site, in order to acquire empirical knowledge of the impact of ICT on public spaces and to foster collaboration among experts from creative practices, humanities and historians, as well as city stakeholder.

VENUE

The Cyprus Institute
20 Konstantinou Kavafi Street. Aglantzia
2121 Nicosia Cyprus

Organisation committee:

Tutors: The following reputed scientists and practitioners from different European countries will support the Training School:

Additional guest lectures are planned for the beginning of each session:

  • Marina Solomidou- Ieronymidou - Director, Department of Antiquities
  • Agni Petridou - Chief Engineer, Nicosia Municipality
  • Glafkos Konstantinides - Urban Planning Consultant
  • Loukas Kalisperis - Professor of PennState Stuckeman School of Architecture
  • Yiorgos Chrysanthou - Dept. of Computer Sciences, University of Cyprus
  • Colter Wehmeier - NCSA, AVL, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Skype)
  • Panayiotis Charalambous - Computer Scientist, CASTORC, CyI
  • Panayiotis Kyriacou - Augmented Reality applications, STARC, CyI

PARTICIPANTS

The training event is designed as CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and the targeted participants are young practitioners and academics (max 35 years old) from different fields tackling the nexus of people -places and technology, as architecture, urban design and planning, landscape architecture, urban and cultural management, urban sociology and anthropology, conflict resolution, computational science-related professions, computer gaming developers and creative industries, etc. They can be students and young graduates, as well as PhD Students and Early Stage Career researchers working in related fields. This list is not exhaustive, the training school is open to a wide range of backgrounds - just inspire the jury to select you!

The participants’ groups will be formed with an interdisciplinary scope, i.e., participants with a design-oriented background will be encouraged to collaborate with computer scientists. We aim to form 4 groups of 5 participants involving 2 designers, 2 programmers and 1 from humanities in each group.

The Training School Hybrid Heritagescapes as Urban Commons in Mediterranean Cities will be open to a maximum of 20 participants.

REIMBURSEMENT & GRANTS

The confirmed applicants from COST countries will be granted for accommodation, daily meals and travel expenses the maximum flat rate grant defined by both TU1306 Project and the Organizing Committee. The maximum reimbursement amount for coming to Nicosia is organized according to the following scheme:

  • For participants from Cyprus: 100€
  • For participants from other COST countries 900€

The list of COST countries is available here.