M+I house

Nicosia, Cyprus

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M+I house

Nicosia, Cyprus

Firm

christos pavlou architecture

Type

Residential › Private House

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2008

SIZE

1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

Photos

Louca photographic studios (6)

The house is located in a remote, semi-rural residential area of Nicosia in Cyprus with nothing of interest surrounding the plot but a few houses and an empty flat landscape. The idea and form of the house is not so much dictated by its surrounding context but by its orientation related to the sun movement , the local winds and the need to be introverted and isolated. The requirement was thus to create an inward looking L-shape configuration with a private courtyard , a swimming pool and a mini play ground for soccer. A proposed landscape of plants, bushes and trees create the perfect setting for outdoor living, a place of refuge and retreat. The house becomes an in-between zone of inside-outside and the courtyard an extended zone of the living inside.

The house incorporates a range of outdoor spaces as an extension of the interior. All major rooms are oriented due South with the less used spaces such as utility, laundry and corridor placed on the North side. The ground floor opens onto the courtyard and allows light and air deep into the interiors. The transparency of the ground floor enables the exterior including a long covered veranta to become part of the interior. In-between the courtyard and the interior the extended first floor slab creates a shield to the ground floor against the strong summer sun and at the same time it becomes a terrace garden for the master bedroom.

Large sliding glass doors divide the ground floor rooms. These doors can be slide back discreetly into the thickness of the walls allowing thus all the spaces to flow to each other while maximizing interior space and creating environment depending on the mood and needs of the user. On the first floor there are 5 bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and ward-drops. All bedrooms share views to the gardens and exploit the south-west winds during summer and the heat gains during winter.