Residence 372

There is a simple condition that is often said to describe the domestic environment. Not, maybe, Le Corbusier’s ‘une machine pour vivre’, but the notion of a hard shell and a soft exterior. Residence 372 adopts this and executes it with some authority. On approach the language is austere and brutally beautiful, the folded concrete surface so devoid of detail it begs study, the gradual change of light drifting across the deliberate texture. A single break in the surface creates the entrance, while the sudden appearance of three angular lightwells breaks up the scale of the massive volume. There is very little to say that the shell has been hollowed out on the inside. The inner works of the residence open on to the neighbouring park, one of the most impressive extent of green on the outskirts of Nicosia. Taking in the view, luxuriating in the green is a rare opportunity in the capital. Large areas of glazing take in the morning light and absorb the environment into the living spaces. There is a precise distinction between spaces, a deliberate definition that allows everything to dictate its place in the wider context. The sensation of orchestration is further enhanced by the boldness of the tectonic elements. It is all statements around which one can build with confidence. It is a map drawn by a cartographer with knowledge of the machine we like to inhabit.