Paul Kaloustian Architect

Museums are not just buildings. They are a series of experiences where humans find sanctuary. They hold in them unfathomable wisdom as they showcase and tell stories about the human kind. Since culture is a fundamental feature that governs the dynamics of humanity in general, museums have evidently shifted from being spaces that display unique and foreign objects to becoming real vessels of intra-cultural communication, strengthening the bonds between all humans. Museums today are veritable centers of learning and discovery. They are windows from where we pear into our own humanity and find ourselves mirrored in a collective image. They are now havens where the human soul heals.

To fulfill its vocation as a place for connecting, gathering and learning, the New Cyprus Museum generously invites the passerby to enter its transparent, shaded and green premises. Mingled in the landscape, the museum library, restaurant and shops activate the ground floor. The pedestrian paths and bike lanes flow naturally in guiding to these activities. Transparency, light wells, shaded areas and courtyards govern the dynamics of the ground floor creating a dialogue between different moments throughout. To make this possible, the museum renounces its footprint and lifts itself up on pilotis and creates a spacious, calm and shaded environment intertwined with nature. The pilotis become part of the landscape visually blending with the tree trunks on the gentle landscape.