Ayla Azizova

Space of Coexistence

Informal market as a peacebuilding tool


In an era of numerous geopolitical conflicts, architects have an important, yet often underexplored, role as peacebuilders. Space of Coexistence: Informal Market as a Peacebuilding Tool, investigates how spatial interventions can rebuild trust, foster dialogue and enhance peaceful interactions between conflicting societies.  

This project focuses on territories affected by so-called frozen conflicts, that remain unresolved for years, thereby silently creating deeper divisions between societies and risk for future escalations. The goal of this project is to create space that serves economic exchange, Trade before Trust, yet also generates hidden purpose for peaceful coexistence. By reestablishing the concept of the border from a separator to a connector, design helps patch up divisions and foster dialogue between opposing communities.  

The project uses the case study of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as a model for broader application. At its core, the proposal is to revive the former informal market in the town of Sadakhlo, Georgia, where Armenians and Azerbaijanis once peacefully traded. Unfortunately, market was closed in 2006 due to political pressure, nevertheless offered rare evidence of coexistence despite ongoing conflict. Its revival becomes spatial act of reconciliation. 

Design here functions as a flexible, user-driven architecture rather than a fixed spatial solution. The informal market operates without a predetermined axis or formal boundaries. Instead, it is shaped by the existing landscape - tree canopies, fences, ruined walls, and remaining infrastructure as gravity points for informal trade. These elements are generating various trading spatial scenarios such as kiosks, smuggling corridors, and temporary stalls built from gabion walls, wooden pallets, or hay stacks. The roof emerges as a patchwork over human projection, emphasizing dynamic and adaptive spatial experience.  

This approach positions trade as a cultural bridge. Architecture becomes a bottom-up peacebuilding tool, allowing communities to build their own shared spaces. The design serves as a manual, that allows users to assemble and disassemble elements as needed, highlighting a sense of uniqueness and adaptability. 

Space of Coexistence proposes architecture not as a monument, but as a living framework for dialogue, where neutrality, landscape, and human activity merge into a tool for long-term reconciliation. 

Graduation date: 29 October 2024 
Graduation committee: Marc Schoonderbeek (mentor), Felix Madrazo † (mentor), Arjen Oosterman, Theo Deutinger
Additional members for the exam: Raul Corrêa-Smith, Ameneh Solati 
External advice: Vibeke Gieskes