HOUSE ED
House ED is a private residence for a family (couple with two children), placed in Lakatamia, a suburb of Nicosia, Cyprus. From the first discussions with the owners we could define some important qualities that the house design should carry out: 1. Prudent privacy, with sensibility, at the same time towards the urban space, 2. Light that can change following the turn of sun 3. A close relation with private nature and finally 4. The need to host the collection of art pieces of the couple.
In order to respond to the above we brought in the project the qualities of two, seemingly contradicting architectural references: 1. The element of the ‘perivolos’ the high wall that surrounds the vernacular Cypriot house and provides privacy, as well as an ‘interior’ open air space, most of the times in the form of an enclosed garden and 2. The whiteness and cleanness of the modernist Loosian architecture, that provides a white canvass in and out and at the same time helps the natural light to infiltrate inside the house.
The outcome was a ‘white’ cube formed by a succession of concentric walls that prolong the experience of entering the house and reaching at its core, while at the same time allowing for an empty core that is filled with a wild garden. The ‘core garden’, which itself is an element of vernacular Cypriot architecture, acts as a main reference space for all the activities of the family and all the separate spaces. The void becomes the heart of the house.
