THE CYPRUS INSTITUTE COMPETITION-1st PRIZE

The Cyprus Institute launched a private competition (8 architects) to design a small building on the quay at Paphos Harbour to support, initially,the operations of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). The building will have a fully equipped electronically workshop for testing and maintainining the A.U.V's together with the instrumentation Laboratory for chemical and geological analysis of the samples collected by the A.U.V's.

Koutsoftides architects won the above mentioned competition with Athos Dikaios firm as a run-up.

Here is our proposal..............

CONCEPT DESCRIPTION-MATERIALS:

The building is in a specific sensitivity area,so we decided to adopt a nautical vocabulary that recalls upon ship building and natural sea fauna (ie sea weed ).

Part of the building shape is reminiscent of the hull of a boat.

Internally the walls and ceilings are cladded with moisture resistant plasterboard with heavy insulation.The floor finish is comprised of stain resistant PVC.All steel members are de-mountable so the entire structure could be relocated in the future.

ENERGY APPROACH:

The shaded external areas facilitate air circulation during the day to capture and extract away the hot air from the envelope.The construction components are double skinned to allow air to circulate and be extracted by natural means.

At night,fresh air enters the building and by natural means hot air enclosed inside gets extracted from the vents located at upper vent corridor.

The team:

Costas Koutsoftides architect d.p.l.g ... the music guru.

Adam Wagg architect Dip.ARCH ... the origami expert.

Emilio Koutsoftides potential architect ... the in house coffee provider.

Charalambos Kantas mechanical engineer... the energy doctor.

Antros Achilleos structural engineer.... the invisible man.

Murphy... the security dog.