Evaluation of the Corner Buildings’ Identity in the Walled City of Nicosia

Corner buildings can be considered as one of the most significant elements that affect cities’ identity. Accordingly, in historic urban quarters, corner buildings play a great role in determining the characteristic of the city. However, together with the development in technology, and the rise of new building typologies, inappropriate conditions have emerged which affected the identity of corner buildings that act as nodes of cities. In the light of this perspective, the study aims to evaluate the corner building identity in the Walled City of Nicosia which is of significance to historic urban quarters. For this purpose, 16 specific corner buildings have been selected from this area of which 8 belongs to the British period and 8 belongs to the modern period built after 1960. The comparative analysis of these examples have proved that corner buildings in the British Period possessed more ornamentation and curved lines; which helped towards creating a specific urban identity. On the other hand, the analysis of contemporary examples have displayed that they have simpler geometric forms and more horizontal lines. Although they are respectful to the corners, they do not have the same impact on the identity of cities. Key words: Identity, corner buildings, historic urban quarters, Walled City of Nicosia