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.