Forest Office Building, Nicosia, Cyprus
Location:
Nicosia, Cyprus
Year:
2005
Type:
Office Building
Status:
Commission
Size:
10.000 sqm
In the design of the headquarters of a tech innovation company, located in Nicosia, Cyprus, our vision was to reconnect the building’s users to the natural world, while creating a healthy and productive working environment.
A concept that needed to be communicated externally too, through the design of a façade of a tree-like perforated aluminium cladding and a large scale central green atrium.
The six-storey office building is envisioned as a single clean shape above a single-storey ground volume that houses retail shops and free working and meeting spaces for start-ups that act as business incubators.
The building’s form was dictated by the shape of the challenging triangular site and the necessity to maximise useable space. In total, the building provides 30 work areas and 20 meeting rooms, all served by 6 coffee stations.
The array of perforated tree-like panels reinforces the building’s iconic character, while improving its energy efficiency. Designed to become one of the most sustainable buildings in Cyprus, the building features an innovative Closed Cavity Façade (CCF) glazing system.
The CCF system prioritises occupant comfort and reduces the entire building’s energy demand and carbon emissions, a pioneering choice for the time we designed it.
The corridors are designed around the central atrium as a continuous looping circulation route. Double sided vertical gardens walls are created across the corridors while indigenous trees and plans cover the ground floor atrium space.
Internally, the spaces are mostly open plan with as few columns as possible to facilitate the collaborative office culture. A colour palette of marble and light grey tones runs throughout, interrupted occasionally by more vivid walls and furnishings.
The objective was to create a building that is projected forward and practically ‘lives and breathes’ innovation and environmental sensibility.
