VIRTUAL Lisbon Livable Cities

Abstract

This paper examines how nostalgia has evolved and is inscribed or manifested through the ‘making’ of Strovolos II, one of the refugee camps created in Nicosia after the Turkish invasion of 1974. Initially designed as temporary accommodation for the Greek-Cypriot refugees within the first year of their displacement, Strovolos II is investigated as a unique place in which nostalgic practices have flourished. Recent studies highlight the dynamic role that nostalgia can play in the wake of forced displacement. In these discussions, nostalgia is not merely rendered as partly a regressive or irrational type of remembering, but it is approached as a key re-interpretative concept that may lead to the formation of new insights in understanding and coping with the complexities of forced displacement. The study sheds light on the vast array of planning strategies, rehousing policies, programme, and the overall conditions that contributed in their own way to the formation of Strovolos II. Through this analysis, we seek to capture and reveal the role played by nostalgia, highlighting whether the nostalgic mechanisms in operation, conscious or not, are progressive or conservative, sentimental, apocalyptic or potentially critical. The complex histories behind the making of Strovolos II are explored through the undertaking of historical inquiry which is carried out by applying the archival research method. This implies the systematic investigation of official documents produced by the relevant bodies, actors and agents that had been involved in the making of Strovolos II. The analysis is further facilitated, through the conduction of interviews with the involved agents.