Garden House by Christos Pavlu Architecture in Nicosia

Project: Garden House
Architects: Christos Pavlu Architecture
Location: Nicosia, Cyprus
Area: 1,959 sq ft
Photography: Charis Solomou

Garden House by Christos Pavlu Architecture

The Garden House is an interesting modern residence designed by Christos Pavlu Architecture in Nicosia, Cyprus. What immediately catches the eye is how this house integrates landscape to a new level. One of the key aspects of the design was creating a unified relationship between the neighborhood, the house, and the lush greenery of surrounding gardens. In addition to this, it offers nearly 2000 square feet of beautiful modern living spaces.

Cities are considered one of the main causes of many ecological problems we face today. Studies show that cities emit 60% more carbon than previously thought, effectively accounting for over 70% of global CO2 emissions. With our garden house project, we wanted to highlight the potential of urban gardens and creating microclimates that can improve living conditions in cities and slow down global warming.

Integrating a standalone house into the urban fabric always presents a challenge, but it can function positively as a unifying element that supports urban continuity. Unlike other urban houses built for isolation from the rest of the area using fences and various barriers, our proposal aimed at physically extending the public green space that exists along the longest side of the plot.

Our design seeks to establish a unified relationship between the neighborhood, private (house) and public green space. Thus, urban elements such as building, street, and public space are not viewed in isolation but rather as a single homogeneous configuration. Our house becomes part of the park, and the park includes the house — in a sense they are interconnected through shared spaces such as walkways, garden, veranda, door threshold and more — seen as elements of one large house-like city. Therefore, our garden house helps improve the quality of urban fabric while also striving to increase biodiversity and reduce the carbon footprint in the city.

The central element of the house was planting gardens covering 60% of the first floor and promoting the use of a green terrace on the second floor. The bio-lawn was mainly planted on the first floor, creating a friendly environment for bees and thus supporting biodiversity. Studies show that 75% of global agricultural crops depend on bees. The building is designed as two rectangular cubes with a green internal courtyard between them. The idea of an interior garden makes it hard to distinguish where the garden ends and the interior begins.

The central garden is the main feature of the house, around which all other spaces are organized and function. Greenery seems to cut through the house from east to west; it penetrates deeply inside, fills the useless space under the staircase and extends to the other side of the house. All internal areas lean toward external spaces, making the entire house a transitional zone — rich and tense interior but pleasant at the same time, thus enhancing living comfort and enjoyment. The 24-meter glass doors on the first floor not only separate internal spaces but also when open, make the whole house behave like one single space connected to the gardens. When landscape becomes a concept, there are no walls.

– Christos Pavlu Architecture