Could a house be designed to resemble an open garden? A garden that fosters social interaction among family members, frames the sky as part of daily life, and adapts its functions to the changing seasons. Domus Oliva is a house located in the suburbs of Nicosia, Cyprus, designed to meet the needs of a young family of four. The program is straightforward: a living room, a kitchen, a workspace, two bedrooms, and one en-suite bedroom.
The site, with its gentle slopes, low Cypriot vegetation, scattered olive trees, and low-density residential development, serves as the canvas where architecture and program will meet. Our aim was to design a garden-house, open to nature, where residential functions seamlessly blend with the ecosystem of the garden.
Morphologically, the building is defined as an abstract white cube, carved with vertical crevices. Metallic sliding doors fill the cube’s gaps, creating multiple connections between the house and its surroundings. What emerges is a porous shell that fosters interactions between interior and exterior, light and shadow, privacy and openness. Internally, the shell embraces the units of the program.
The spaces are organized across two levels, establishing a clear distinction between the family’s public and private life. The ground floor accommodates the more public areas, including the living room, kitchen, dining area, and workspace. The upper floor contains the private spaces: two children's bedrooms and the master bedroom. The two levels are interconnected by a central patio, elevated as a key compositional element.
This feature introduces a vertical gap that fills the house with abundant natural light and allows cross ventilation. A red metal staircase connects the two levels, and becomes a focal point. Additionally, smaller semi-open spaces within the cube are interwoven with the interior, blurring the boundaries between indoors and outdoors. Nature enters the house and the house enters the nature creating a permanent in-between state.
