Michael Cosmas
Biography
ABOUT
Michael Cosmas holds a Master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard University’s GSD, an Architecture Diploma from the Architectural Association (AA) London and a BA in Architecture and Environmental Desing from Nottingham University. Michael’s GSD tenure included a year in Rem Koolhaas ‘Project on the City’ . After completing his studies, he worked for offices with significant contributions to modern Architecture such as Alejandro Zaera’s Foreign Office Architects.
In 2002 Michael founded MCA (Michael Cosmas Architecture LLC) The practice has a wide portfolio of projects, which include residential, commercial and educational buildings, as well as urban design studies (masterplans). MCA’s work has received recognition in architectural competitions and has been published in the local and international architectural press.
Michael maintains an active participation in the discussion of Architecture and Urbanism in Cyprus. He has served as a member of the board of the CAA, and as a member of various ETEK committees. For the last 8 years he has been the EUMies Prize’s independent expert in Cyprus.
AWARDS
- Europan 7 winner / EUMies Award independent expert
PROJECTS TO BE PRESENTED DURING THE EVENT
Project #1: Stassinou Tower
Start year: 01.02.2020
Designed in 2016, but just recently completed, the Stassinou Avenue Office Tower is a materialisation of our practice’s on-going investigation on the nexus between formal methodologies, material assemblages and sustainability. Built on a tiny plot measuring just 400m2, the building towers over a busy downtown junction with little room to set up a construction site.
Project #2: Nexus
Start year: 01.03
The highly privileged plot 435 that lies at the crossroads between the avenue and Prodromou street, presents a unique opportunity for an architectural statement but at the same time unfolds a challenge for a critical intervention on the mechanisms of urbanisation and densification of the city. The building attempts to respond to ‘local’ spatial parameters, but at the same time remains ‘hyper-local’ in its resonance and aspiration. It attempts to organize a series of intentions, such as the dynamic relationship between the scale of the building and that of the urban node, the optimal adjustment of the volumes to the geometry of the plot and the interactive relationship between the building and the passer-by, through a series of calibrated morphological gestures that compile a continuous surface into a solid, continuous form.
