Nicosia

Competition Date: January 2017

In 2016 the republic of Cyprus announced an International Architectural Competition for the “New Cyprus Museum”.

The plot resides at the area of the old general hospital building, opposite the Cyprus Parliament.

The project is situated along an axes that runs from White Walls tower, Eleftheria square, Cyprus parliament, cuts through Pedieos river and its pedestrian and cycling paths and finds the Nicosia Courthouse. Since Nicosia is heading towards the future and will need to host in its urban infrastructure the dynamic input of buildings of significant architectural expression, our approach suggests a modern building that would create itself a new landmark and that will have the power to impose this future transformation.

Since the museum architecture is no longer motivated by any thematic or symbolic envelopes, the proposal from Studiomk35 - Architects forwards the image of an independent sculptured volume that will occupy most of the plot’s inner space leaving all necessary visual corridors on its perimeter.

This is enhanced by the fact that the plot has no access barrier, and so the building proposal should maintain the feeling of a floating volume capable of creating new relations with its surrounding urban elements. The strong sculpture element with its distinctive shape will be prominent when viewed from the nearby future high-rise developments. The volume is lifted above ground with its heavier solid part hovering above a light volume of glass.

The building stands on top of two main axes, one from the river on the west side towards the city center and the second one from the government buildings complex towards the South passing close to the pectoral historical building.

On these dynamic corridors the main entrance hall and the main gallery are positioned, offering contemporaneously uninterrupted views of the external landscape and increasing its accessibility from all sides.

A main public void constitutes the central hub of the building by distributing the employees and visitors to all of its functions, it reveals the different levels of the museum and allows a fluid spatial movement throughout the structure. Auxiliary functions are positioned all around the ground floor served by the main corridor.

The restaurant on the East side proposes open views towards the old museum and the parliament while the temporary exhibitions area and public events area are strongly related to the river side on the West.

The river contour lines are smoothly bended so to liberate views from the river bank to the museum and vice versa, this emphasizes the accessibility towards the building and creates an area for external events.

Water areas are proposed in such way so to create a filter of calmness and surrounds the historical building as well, the liquid element shapes, expands and embrace the museum in order to elevate its volume through reflection.

Its cohesive and aesthetically continuous façade unifies all of its internal parts into a single shape that imposes its character beyond the plot limits towards the city center, projecting itself as a strong landmark.

The museum permanent exhibition area opposes the traditional idea of chambers and corridors and uses a free plan in which the visitor will be able to enjoy spacious views of all the historical findings, while the differentiation of the objects will be realized with the use of light, floor and ceiling lines.

The fluid and easy movement of the visitors throughout the space is the initial goal of the project, it’s essential to create a meditation between the hard shell of the structure and the delicate character of the exhibits. The spacious museological area will give the opportunity to the visitors to witness the numerous archeological findings and experience the interaction of the various periods. As a historical container, the permanent exhibition space has three main light openings, the west glass façade looking towards the riverside offering spectacular views of green and of the riverbank, the skylight which enforces the connection corridors and the vertical void from the ground floor to the museum floor.

Our approach for the Department of Antiquities and the Laboratories was to articulate them in such a way so to be independent and integral entities on the south part of the plot, on the same time their volume is a continuity of the dynamic lines of the main building. This has created a unique triangular space between them that offers easy access to the employees. Both buildings are conceived around a vertical void element where the various floors shift in order to control the natural light.

The dynamic configuration of the complex aims to be the driving force towards Nicosia’s future transformation, it focuses into the belief that architecture should make people think of the unthinkable, to provoke the established way of experiencing the public space, and create the future landmark of the City.