By Socrates Stratis

Catalog for the Cypriot contribution to the 15th Architecture Biennial in Venice: "Contested Fronts: commoning practices for conflict transformation" Can collective urban practices contribute to peace processes in divided cities? How can they be used in a targeted manner as part of urban policy, in order to ease ethnic tension and create spaces for peaceful cohabitation? The Cypriot contribution to the 15th Architecture Biennial in Venice is dedicated to this role of architecture and urban planning as a political instrument for solving conflicts and creating communities. The town of Famagusta in Cyprus serves as an example, a town characterized by polarizing narratives and burdened by memories loaded with conflict. In order to transform the contested territories into areas of common interest and action, the local initiative Hands-on Famagusta developed methods for urban transformation. The book brings together practical examples of this initiative and international articles from relevant literature, thereby communicating strategies and tactics for the formation and spatial organization of the collective. It actively encourages societies to imagine peaceful common urban imaginaries.