Zaha-New urban square at the heart of Nicosia

The project of Eleftheria Square is situated in the political context of Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital and in the historical context of the adjacent Venetian Wall which is buffered by a recessed moat that presently consists of a mainly inaccessible garden and landscape areas. This massive fortification defines the extents of the ancient city and separates it from the modern city outside the walls.

The architectural intervention at Eleftheria Square, which is only a part of a much larger urban planning vision that could become a catalyst for the urban unification of the capital, aspires to organise and synthesise the whole of the Venetian Wall, the Moat and the fringes of inner and the outer parts of the city into a unified whole.