Imaginary and physical territorialities: Municipal Hall 2

The municipal hall in Kyrenia is a product of donations. The building is designed by Philippou brothers and opened in 1969. It was donated by the Cypriot Zena Kanther. It is located in the public garden of the city, which was also donated by George Ludwig Huston, a Scottish inhabitant, of the city. It is a free standing object with all its sides exposed to the square. Its main entrance opens into a public paved space overlooking the old city and the sea. Its back side opens into the garden with a water fountain. It is a small two-floor tall building, organized into two superimposed and shifted square volumes, creating different conditions along its perimeter..Since 1974, it has been painted all white, covering its original sand-like finishes. Plus, an added small coffee shop blocks the exit staircase from the back side of the building to the planted public space with the fountain. When we talked to the Greek Cypriot exiled mayor in her office in Nicosia, she told us that the building was designed in the early 1970s by a British architect who I still search his name. The exiled mayor has not gone back to her hometown since 1974. The Turkish Cypriot tenants unsee any use of the building before the 1974 war, where the Greek Cypriots refuse to see the 44 year old appropriation of the building by the Turkish Cypriot community, considering it illegal. Kyrenia will be part of the North Region with Turkish Cypriot majority, in case of a political agreement based on the Cyprus Federal model. It remains rather vague however, whether the local authority structure will be adjusted to a potentially non-homogenized ethnic origin citizens, based on the European regulations. That is true for all cities under the potential Federal State of Cyprus.