DOMUS OLIVA
 

This is a house located somewhere in the suburbs of Nicosia, Cyprus. It will accommodate the needs of a young family with a little girl. The program is clear: one living room, one kitchen, one workspace, two bedrooms and one en-suit bedroom.
 
The terrain with mild slopes, the low Cypriot vegetation, scattered olive trees, and the strong line of the horizon define the canvas where architecture and program will meet.
 
In terms of morphology the building is defined as an abstract, white cube, carved with vertical crevices. Wooden sliding louvers come to fill the cube’s gaps thereby developing multiple connections between the house and its surrounding environment. What emerges is a porous shell that evokes interactions between the inside and the outside, the light and the shadow, the private and the public.
 
Internally, the shell embraces the units of the program. Spaces and functions are organized around a central patio that it is raised as an essential element of the composition. Here, mass is removed from the cube, perforating it vertically. The result is a gap that fills the inside of the house with natural light. In addition, smaller semi-open spaces inside the cube are interwoven with the interior spaces of the house. Nature enters the house and the house enters the nature creating a permanent in-between state.