| Biel Susanna, Stefanos Theodorou
| 2014 | Concurso: UIA – HYP CUP 2014 International Student Competition – 1r Premio
| ETSAB + Aalto University | Tutor: Chen-Yu Chiu

Las bases del concurso, llamado «The Unexpected City», planteaban trabajar sobre una ciudad que estuviera fragmentada, sin cohesión, y con tendencia a dividirse aún más. La propuesta tenía que conseguir religar tradición, modernidad y tecnología y se pedían soluciones ambiciosas, originales, casi visionarias. La ciudad sobre la que proponemos el proyecto es Nicosia: última capital de país dividida y ocupada del mundo.

Cyprus, an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, has experienced the humanitarian crises from ongoing socio-political conflicts in the 20th century. Since 1963, the country has been split into two after 11 years of intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots: the Republic of Cyprus (the South); and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (the North). Today, its capital city, Nicosia, remains the last divided capital city in the world. Every summer, Nicosia faces serious water shortages. The people live both in the South and the North are awaiting the arrival of a STORM not only to quench their thirst, but also to alleviate the pain and suffering from years of division.

Water is vital to life. This is the rationale for creating the STORM – an urban-scale complex that includes a solar power station for converting sunlight into electricity, a processing plant for desalinating seawater, and a water tank for storing the desalinated water, transferred from the east coast of Cyprus to Nicosia through the water ducts along the Green Line that had previously divided the country into two. The STORM generates stores and supplies the desalinated water for sustaining lives and improving the livelihoods in Nicosia. Through creating the STORM project, people living in the South and the North of Cyprus can work and live together. The STORM nurtures and unifies Cyprus as a country that is re-established truly by and for its people.

The STORM stands on the Green Line in Nicosia to remind people of the previous conflicts and division between the South and the North of Cyprus. The STORM also presents a vision for unification. The transparency of built form in the STORM represents the dialogue and collaboration between the two sides of Cyprus. The transparency also shows the storage level to remind people of the importance of water conservation. The STORM is erected with steel trusses and cables from the two sides of Nicosia that symbolize the rain, fences and fights. The numbers of trusses and cables in the South (1952 in total) and North façade (520 in total) represent the total number of people missing from the two sides during the division. Like the old Venetian walls that have shaped and unified the city, the STORM is the new wall that firmly establishes a new vision of solidarity in Nicosia.

The STORM transforms the Green Line in Nicosia into a new urban park where the ruin remains. The escalator of the STORM connects the ruin of the sacred sites and its observation deck – the two main components of this urban park. The STORM is also a monumental gateway to connect the South and the North of Nicosia. This gateway is for remembering the past of a divided Cyprus and celebrating its unification from now on.