British firm wins Cultural Centre bid

BRITISH ARCHITECTURAL firm Hopkins Architects has won the competition to design the new Cyprus Cultural Centre in Nicosia.

Hopkins Architects is known throughout the world for works such as the Glyndebourne Opera House and the new buildings for the British Parliament. Head of the company Sir Michael Hopkins received the 1994 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture along with his wife.

A total of 60 leading architectural offices from around the globe entered the competition to design the building. The list was narrowed down to eight, each of which has a worldwide reputation.

The decision was taken unanimously by a high-calibre international jury presided by former Commerce Minister and Town Planning head, Michael Colocassides. Other jury members include the former music director of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy, established architects Charles Correa and Theo David and the former Chief Executive of the Sydney Opera House and current chief of the South Bank Centre in London, Michael Lynch.

Working together with Hopkins Architects will be the local architectural office ‘Virdas and Patsalosavis’, consulting engineers Ove Arup and Partners, consultants for acoustics Kirkegaard Associates and theatre consultants Carr and Angier.

The Cyprus Cultural Foundation (CFF), created in 2005, was assigned with the task of creating a Cultural Centre in Nicosia. The centre would be used for the performing arts, showcasing national and international performances of music, dance, opera, ballet and theatre.

The Cultural Centre will be built opposite the new House of Representatives, in an area that has been reserved as a major cultural zone.

The centre is said to contain a main performance hall with a capacity of 1,400 seats; a secondary hall of 500-capacity for chamber music, jazz concerts, world music and the spoken word; and an outdoor theatre suitable for larger scale concerts of up to 2,000 people.

The budget for the project is currently at 80 million euros with the completion date set for 2010. The EU has also expressed its interest in the scheme and is expected to fund a large percentage of the cost for the centre.
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The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.