Pilbrow & Partners

Fred Pilbrow, founding partner, Pilbrow & Partners

2017 | Proposal

Nicosia

New Cyprus Museum main stairs, @Pilbrow & Partners

Architect Pilbrow & Partners has unveiled designs for a stunning new ‘floating’ archaeological museum in Nicosia, Cyprus, to sit above and shroud a live archaeological dig.

The innovative plans, submitted as part of an open international competition for a new museum in the Cypriot capital, invert the brief by moving the proposed site of the museum to The Hill of Agios Georgios, which is currently earmarked as the site for a new House of Representatives building.

New Cyprus Museum at dusk@ Pilbrow & Partners

However, after extensive archaeological remains were found on The Hill of Agios Georgios during early construction phases of the new House of Representatives, plans for the new building were indefinitely postponed, leaving the parliament without a site for its new accommodation.

By proposing to locate the new archaeological museum on The Hill of Agios Georgios, Pilbrow & Partners’ plans allow for the creation of a dynamic 21st century archaeological museum sited within the context of a live archaeological dig.

New Cyprus Museum interior, @Pilbrow & Partners

At the same time, the radical proposal addresses the need for a new site for the House of Representatives, which Pilbrow & Partners propose relocating onto the site previously earmarked for the archaeological museum. This site on Tziabacharlala Nechrou offers a large flat site, without archaeological remains, immediately adjacent to the existing House of Representatives.

Fred Pilbrow, Pilbrow & Partners founding partner, said: “Our proposal solves the problem of finding a new site for the House of Representatives, while at the same time completely transforming the potential of the new museum. We think the competition site for the archaeological museum is in fact much better suited to the new House of Representatives as a new building on the Tziabacharlala Nechrou site could perhaps link to and reutilise elements of the old House of Representatives.

New Cyprus Museum model, @Pilbrow & Partners

“Importantly, the proposal also opens up an entirely new paradigm for the archaeological museum in the 21st century. Our plan puts visitors and staff in close connection with a real and ongoing archaeological investigation, serving both to contextualise the artefacts displayed in the collection and to demonstrate how archaeology is a dynamic process that continuously enriches and revises our understanding of the past.”

New Cyprus Museum main entrance, @Pilbrow & Partners