Resilient Infrastructures: The Case of a Multi-use Transportation Corridor Along the Demarcation Line in Cyprus

There are instances where a piece of infrastructure may assume multiple roles, especially when it has the potential of becoming inhabited. The case in point, on the island-country of Cyprus, is the product of a bi-communal conflict which has resulted in a demarcation and buffer zone between opposing sides. The issue of what to do with respect to cultural heritage in this contested zone that contains underutilized built and natural landscapes comes into play. The question is asked as to whether it can be put to use as a venue not only for reconciliation but also as a zone of production, of cultural regeneration and of economic redevelopment. Indeed, action in such areas of contestation may lead to restoration, regeneration and resilience within an area that may benefit from reacquiring a positive message of unity in diversity in such a way as that of making heritage anew and in re-articulating the demarcation line by the use of a piece of infrastructure. The case study presented is one such attempt at a mechanism for creating new possibilities for economic and cultural production and for the redevelopment, regeneration and resilience for the underused territory. At the same time, it offers on one hand the possibility for the rapprochement of the disengaged communities on either side of it, as well as the unlocking of the economic potential of the underused dormant land it occupies. In this latter incarnation—and utopina in nature as it may seem—it may well offer alternative appropriation, occupation and habitation platforms and additionally it may present a means of strengthening bicommunal resilience.