New Cyprus Museum

At the urban scale level, the proposal takes advantage of the present urban connections of the plot and the placement of the building, creating a series of urban circulatory continuities and attractive routes within the plot. 

The main entrance is found in the northeastern part of the plot, which is configured as a tree-lined square that extends the greenery of the Municipal Garden, in order to organize the urban continuity between the existing Museum and the buildings of the Parliament and the Municipal Theatre.

A crucial bridging constitutes the central path of the exterior landscape, which connects the Municipal Garden to the southernmost tip of the plot, perforating transversely the building by means of an arcade located at the main exit of the Museum’s exhibition.

The architectural structure of the building, which is divided into three main floors and two underground levels, breaks down into two main axes, the horizontal and the vertical one:

The dominant horizontal axis results by principle through the particular architectural proposal for the permanent exhibition as a linearly developed and open space-time field.

At the same time, it organizes the performance and uncovering of the inner workings of the museum.

Similarly, the vertical organizational axis of the building program concerns the highlighting and orchestration of the different understandings of time and habitation in the museum, involving in a relational way the movements and stops of the personnel, the visiting researchers, the general public, but also of the archaeological objects.

*The proposal was shortlisted with 17 other entries out of 129

in the first phase of the International Architectural Competition for the New Cyprus Museum.