Eraclis Papachristou Architects was appointed to design a new hotel in the centre of Nicosia, the last divided. The challenge was to create a unique landmark for the city that will stand at 150 meters making it the tallest tower in Nicosia. Being located on the peripheral road of the medieval old city that is circulated by the venetian city walls, the site acts as a threshold between the historical neighbourhoods of the old city and the new developments outside.
Rising up from a two-storey lobby, the 33-storey building appears as eight varied volumes that are stacked on top of each other. The building’s various functions are distributed strategically these volumes
All volumes are aligned on the two narrow sides of the building (except from volume 7), shifting up and down only on the longer axis. These shifts on the axis as well as the changes in the size of the volumes provide the opportunity to create hanging gardens to the volumes of the hotel rooms, while creating open-air outdoor spaces where required by the building program.
The two volumes in which the hotel rooms are located can be clearly distinguished from the facade of the building, and in particular from the incorporation of the hanging gardens on their verandas. On the two narrow sides of the building slanting fins are designed specifically for each volume in order to provide shade and privacy and to direct the views towards the city, while simultaneously enhancing the verticality of the building.
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Last year more than 40 countries took part in the WAN Awards with strong showings from Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. And we saw some truly outstanding projects, take a look at the winners from last year here.