Cyprus with its rich cultural heritage has been the showcase of ornamentation throughout history with a rich variety of materials, details, and narratives. Integrating ornamentation with its body architecture can be seen as one of the storytellers of these narratives through design elements. After the mid-1990s when casinos had been banned in Turkey, five-star casino hotels became one of the main investment areas in North Cyprus. Together with this new building type and new users’ expectations with a new understanding of holidays, the 21st century brought the changing use of ornamentation in hotel interiors and, hence, decoration came to the fore more than before. Hotel lobbies welcoming the users to their second homes and introducing the hotels’ identities have always been seen as the most important area of hotels by investors, designers, and hotel managers. Sometimes the reception areas were perceived as the living room of the hotel customers where they feel attached culturally, socially, or economically, and sometimes it could be a place where they can feel themselves as one of the characters of ancient history, a king or a queen for a while. Hence, hotel interiors, in general, and hotel lobbies, in particular, acted as a cultural representative, a social status symbol, and a political image of the story told. The aim of this paper is to examine five-star hotel lobbies within the framework of ornamentation through a reading model created with the concepts used by theoreticians. Together with the site visits and visual recordings, the analysis conducted in this paper is based on qualitative data incorporated by a rich theoretical background on ornamentation. The paper tries to highlight the representational value of ornamentation that can help to understand and interpret the spatial transformation of hotel interiors.

The capital city of Cyprus, Nicosia, has been the seat of government and administrative authority throughout the island's history. The Lusignan reign in the twelfth century (1192–1489) was followed by Venetian (1489–1571), Ottoman (1571–1878) and British (1878–1960) rule until the establishment of the independent state of Cyprus (1960–1963). Today, Nicosia is the last divided capital city in Europe, serving the Turkish Cypriots in the north and the Greek Cypriots in the south of the island. The palaces, monuments and governmental centres illustrate how territorial belonging and power were defined and reflected in the buildings of the city itself. The way in which the power of individuals, communities and nations is organized can be traced through the organization of space and the architectural forms of administrative buildings. This paper elaborates on the ideas and experiences of architects with regard to the ideational background, symbolic significance and relationship between art form and political power put forth in these buildings. Within this context, the paper reflects on the impact of divisiveness in architectural forms and aesthetics, the political use of urban space, the constructional aim of official buildings, the architectural styles that affected their design and the extent of the political authority's involvement in planning and design. Drawing on the oral testimonies of architects and archival materials, the paper highlights the connection between political power and the architectural processes that allowed for the contextualization of divisiveness that has dominated the architectural forms on the island particularly in the contemporary history of the island.

The reproduction of space along the border in post-conflict divided cities is an important issue in relation to urban resilience. Nicosia, widely known as the last divided capital city in Europe, is the capital city of Turkish Cypriots in the north and Greek Cypriots in the south. The Buffer Zone was formalized in 1974 as an emergency measure against inter-communal clashes. Further, the walled city of Nicosia was bisected, and thus urban and social unity became a relic of the past. In addition, the city center became the edge of the two bisected halves. The Nicosia Master Plan (NMP) was initiated by professionals on both sides. Moreover, it was in the first planning attempt that Nicosia was considered as a whole. The NMP was the first self-reliant quest that was developed for the purpose of finding a solution that could operate without having to wait for a political consensus. The Ledra Palace crossing opened in 2003 as the first opening on the border that ran across the United Nations (UN)-controlled Buffer Zone in Nicosia. Such a crossing possessed a symbolic meaning; the two communities feel as if they are socially united, and it encouraged NGOs and artists to step forward and allow the border to be perceived not as a boundary but as a shared space. The Buffer Fringe Festival is one of the recent cultural organizations that was held along the divide of Nicosia and it is also the festival scrutinized in this paper. This festival was designed to explore the boundary as a phenomenon experienced in daily life; furthermore, discussions were had regarding how the Buffer Fringe actors and artists perceived the festival as a peace-making tool. Together with visual and verbal records, the analysis conducted in this paper is based on qualitative data within a theoretical framework concerning body–space connections. In this paper, the aim is to emphasize how festivals can function beyond the limits of borders, provide an arena for connecting people, and exemplifies how one can interpret the spatial transformation of a space within the context of post-conflict divided cities.

Context is an external component that indicates the conditions surrounding a project site. The study shows the importance of architectural context for the architectural studio, where the study focuses on the results of students' work in Architectural design studio IV at the third year of architectural study, to explore students' abilities in how to link the concept with the site context. The studio centers studies in the classroom in the 2019 -2020 Spring semester, where due to pandemics all around the world, the online lectures continued digital platforms and homely.The research methodology is geared towards collecting 9 students 'work in the assigned studio, to explore their abilities in how to create the bond between their concept and the context, to see, what is the impact of the pandemic? The study aims to highlight the impact of context on the concept in future architectural education.

Green building can be considered as a building design through a method that is environmentally friendly in both construction, usage and energy consumption. Culture is yet to be included into the sustainable development pillars making it the fourth pillar of sustainability after social, economic and environmental aspects. Traditional Architecture can be regarded as beliefs, customs, or ways of life (culture) in building construction that have existed for a long period and involve the art of designing, planning, and traditional building style. These traditional buildings were copied and used in contemporary buildings in Kano state, Nigeria. Therefore, most of the contemporary building design and structure has their roots in a traditional building. Nigeria’s traditional buildings across the country were affected by climate and landform all over the geographical zones, which were recognised to demonstrate a detailed solution to the building’s culture, socio-economic, local technology and climatic condition of the environment. This study compares the past and the current building style based on the façade or floor-plan pictures, and green or sustainable building using relevant kinds of literature of Hausa traditional building around Kano state. It is concluded that Hausa traditional architecture should not be forgotten, rather it should be encouraged and improved based on green sustainable features, traditions and enhance the durability of the building materials. It is recommended that culture should be include into the pillars of sustainability so as to make sustainability complete especially in the field of building construction. Lastly, further research is recommended in order to explore ways of improving the quality of the local building materials and the methods used during the construction process.