Border research from design cultures. Cyprus Pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale as transformative proposals for Nicosia's borderscapes

The chapter explores a notable case in border studies: the divided island of Cyprus and its capital city, Nicosia. The spatial, political, and symbolical partition that has cut through Cypriot territories since the 1960s - the so-called Green Line - was addressed through the curatorial projects created for the Cyprus Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale from 2006 to 2021. The research and curatorial projects produced in this context provide valuable critical material for discussing the tangible and intangible implications of the division and, ultimately, alternative scenarios of change for the Green Line and the island as a whole. The spatial and political visions produced by architects and curators offer a robust argument for introducing “the future” as a transformative variable in the production of knowledge around borders not only as barriers to be transgressed or erased but also and mostly as spaces of imagination and longing.