The Cyprus Institute (CyI) participated in the inaugural Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (Seoul Biennale) Sept. 1-Nov. 5, 2017.

According to the UN’s World Urbanization Prospect Report of 2014, 54% of the world’s population now lives in metropolitan areas. By 2050, this percentage will increase to 86% in advanced countries, and 64% in developing nations. It is a forecast that reconfirms that the city stands at the center of the question of sustainability. With the emergence in the current era of technological networks and global inter-connection, the nation-state is losing its role as the guarantor of the safety and well-being of the individual.

Nicosia, a city in the east Mediterranean Sea, has been continuously inhabited for over 4,500 years and has been the capital of the island of Cyprus since the 10^th century. The exhibition space offers stories about this medieval city centre that is now the last divided capital in Europe. How does climate change affect daily life in Mediterranean cities? How did the narrow streets of the old city, the moat that surrounds the medieval walls, and the park over the Pedieos river changed through the years? And how will they look like in the future?

The visitor of the exhibition will be able to see nature transforming history, and citizens forming the communities of the city. Visualisations of temperature and rainfall extremes, as well as atmospheric dust events, will be presented in Virtual Reality.

Visitors will be able to explore and learn about the human condition in one of the climate change hot-spots of our planet Earth.