Contemporary House Design in Lemesos by George Papadopoulos

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Located in Lemesos, Cyprus, architect George Papadopoulos has designed a nice, warm, cozy house with contemporary atmosphere for his family. At a glance, the house just represents the profession of George himself, the Skinotechniki owner, a company that normally designs and constructs scenery and sets for the stage, film and television industry.

The house is built between two narrow streets in the old part of the town of Lemesos, about 50m from one of the most popular stretches of sandy beach in Cyprus, and just down the road from the house George grew up. The site was previously occupied by an old carob mill that burnt down in a fire in 1989, leaving only the ruins of the stone walls.

George aimed to create a family home, as well as a place for him to work, so he decided to create the separate entrance of the house. The building had to fit into it’s surrounding environment of both traditional two storey stone and adobe single family dwellings, and some small old industrial buildings.

Most rooms in the house face the partly covered internal courtyard. This is a traditional way of building in Cyprus helping to keep the family together and safeguard the privacy of the occupants. Walls are 55-75cm thick, made out of aerated concrete blocks, with thermal resistance well beyond that of the traditional adobe wall. In Lemesos, the energy requirement of a modern building for cooling alone is 70% of the total energy consumed. The house does not have a conventional cooling system. It is cooled by a combination of elements. Traditional ceiling fans. Shaded roof windows and a hallway rising up three storeys, draw hot air out using the stack effect principle. Large plane trees in the internal garden and correct building orientation, give shade. The water from the fish ponds and pool that cover the 65% of the internal garden area, evaporates providing additional cooling.

At night the cooler air from the mountains sinks through the open roof lights. The main bedroom has it’s own special cooling system. A geothermic system where using a small fan, air is drawn from the bedroom through 30cm diameter pipe buried underground. The air comes back in the room providing a comfortable temperature. The children’s bedrooms face west and could have been very hot at night.

Photography by Andy Soteriou and Christos Papantoniou

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