The Recorder: A Participatory Digital Platform for the Rehabilitation of the City of Famagusta in Cyprus

This paper describes the design of a digital participatory platform for the rehabilitation of the fenced ghost city of Famagusta in Cyprus, under the hypothetical scenario of the return of its inhabitants. Before the city´s rehabilitation the platform produces virtual images of the city based on the interaction of its inhabitants´ local desires with a framework of global qualitative constraints. This process allows for the active recording of a new collective memory over the city´s fabric and provides a tool for negotiation and conflict resolution. After the beginning of the rehabilitation process the platform is used as a tool for the design of the city´s growth and change. Apart from the development of a site-specific narration dealing with the problem of Famagusta´s rehabilitation, this paper´s ambition is to contribute to a broader discussion on the character of parametric urbanism as well as to provide a potentially generalizable diagram for computer aided participation in contested spaces.