Özet:

Walls are the artificial and artistic structures of urban civilization. They are symbols of protection and belonging as well as segregation and exclusion. In this study, those two faces of walls are investigated for the last divided capital of the world; Lefkoşa. Firstly, the meanings and the concepts of wall are discussed with respect to two main aspects that a wall can be a unifier and divider element of urban space. Whether the walls in cities may provide a sense of unity, they may lead to decline and obsolescence problems in social and physical urban space. In order to illustrate the validity of this perspective, the well-known cities having walls are evaluated including urban design approaches towards their decline problems. In this respect, two cities having unifier walls are firstly investigated as Bruges of Belgium and Valetta of Malta. Then two other cities known as divided cities by having divider walls as; Belfast and Berlin are discussed. Afterwards, the walled city of Lefkoşa, having both divider and unifier walls, is examined in historical manner. The interventions and proposals for the walled city of Lefkoşa are evaluated and criticized. At the end of the study, further suggestions are discussed by considering the unified values of the city.

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