The proposal begins with a recording of layers of history and landscape scattered in the village. A juxtaposition of archaeological findings primarily made out of stone and clay, topography alongside equally valuable modern art at the Stass Paraschos’ Cyprus Art College. Significant outdoor exhibits often made of fragile materials lying in the landscape coexist with buildings, archaeological shards and everyday personal objects of artists without any hierarchy.
The village of Lempa displays stratified layers of a multi-faceted cultural identity that are primarily revealed in the landscape. Three strata are found, the valuable archaeological finds that are excavated and primarily made out of stone and clay, the significant outdoor exhibits of contemporary art often made of fragile materials lying in the topography, and the ceramic workshops of the area that are revealing the importance of ‘clay’ as a material that runs out of time and combines conceptually the archaeological activity with the ceramic creation and the artistic expression.
This unique relationship of outdoor exhibits and everyday activities creates an important category of a particular landscape that is integrated and protected in the proposal as a unique cultural asset of place. A main drive of the project is based on building on what is already there; integrating existing permanent and temporary uses, spaces and experiences and at the same time adding new components and functions in order to create a unique cultural identity, a combination of old and new.
A wooden spinal structure runs along the two sites, creating an alternative cultural path within the building, the streetscape and the village’s landmarks; the public square, the Lempa sculptured wall (artists wall); the natural landscape (proposed natural park); and the archaeological site (site under excavation).
The structure adjusts to the topography, connects different areas and filters private and public spaces. It is created with reference to the street, where boundaries between public and private uses are not strictly separated but merged, creating an amalgam of different spatial experiences. It allows artists to appropriate it and visitors to walk through it in order to visit the cultural activities taking place. This choreography of movement, pausing and working having the artefacts and trees as a background, gets projected to the façade of the street through layers of transparency and permeability. The wooden structure creates a continuous dialogue between existing traditional buildings and proposed functions by joining open-air plateaus and pedestrian paths with key areas of the building’s programme. Different degrees of density and transparency allows it to display and connect the different programmatic volumes that enclose educational spaces, living and working of the artists and at the same time link the pedestrian movement of students, artists and visitors between the two sites and the village’s public spaces. The art workshops in both sites are situated in continuation of the existing buildings and along the cultural path thus allowing direct access from the public road and the new cultural path. At a smaller scale, the artists appropriate the wooden frame with artwork and everyday activities.
(in cooperation with M. Hadjisoteriou, A. Petrou and S. Floridou).
