The 340m² private house in the outskirts of greater Nicosia was designed to feature contemporary aesthetics, acquiring permanence with the use of timeless materials. Concurrently, the house caters to the needs of a family of four, facilitating communication and comfort.
The building’s placement enhances natural ventilation and lighting, and large openings add to the connection between inside and out.
The architect Renos Constantinou chooses to bestow the house with identity, alluding to the owners’ names: Paris and Helen. Mythology provides inspiration for designing a contemporary “Trojan” home, the “Villa Troy”.
The choice of stone cladding on a loadbearing wall on the façade, as well as on the enclosure at the back of the property, hints at the walls of Troy.
Metal, applied in many components, is another significant material from that time: the façade features five ornamental brackets whose angular form alludes to the trojan war spears; The original metal door and the vertical metal railings shape the home enclosure.
Living spaces, arranged in an irregular L-shape, are placed amidst a cluster of outdoor areas, including verandas and a garden.
The open-plan ground level accommodates the lounge, the living and dining rooms. The double-height void at the vestibule becomes the core around which those three integrated parts of the house develop.
The fireplace, dominating the ground level, functions as divider at the limit between the vestibule, living room, and dining area. Its glass enclosure on three sides allows the hearth to be visible from all adjacent spaces.
The base of the fireplace is clad in ceramic tiles emulating fair-face concrete; this material also dresses the dining room wall, featuring the portrait paintings of Paris and Helen. The fair-face concrete ceramic pairs well with the floor tiling, emulating Calacatta marble. This material covers the entire ground floor of the house, assigning luxury and elegance.
Renos Constantinou