This project proposes a prototype hotel near the Ayia Napa city center coastline. As the most touristic city in Cyprus, Ayia Napa attracts a diverse range of tourists with varied needs.
The city is renowned for its vibrant night-life and clubs, drawing in a particular demographic: young, party-goers seeking an intense night-life experience (Type A).
The Hybrid Hotel aims to cater to Type A’s needs while preserving Ayia Napa’s character. However, the hotel’s design incorporates architectural and urban strategies to ensure a harmonious coexistence with other tourists and local residents. Hybrid Hotel / Ayia Napa, Cyprus / 2018-2019
Accessibility to the coast
The Hybrid Hotel has been designed with a focus on preserving public access to the coastline, ensuring it remains unobstructed and easily available.
existing access to the coast built area of the proposed Hybrid Hotel without interrupting the existing direct access to the coast
Hybrid Hotel / Ayia Napa, Cyprus / 2018-2019
creation of a new public street
leading the public to the coast through the activities of the Hybrid Hotel
addition of 2 new parks
functioning as a noise buffer zones
Hybrid Hotel / Ayia Napa,
Hotel / Ayia Napa, Cyprus / 2018-2019
Hybrid
The programme of the project is responding to the main needs of the town of Ayia Napa:
1. Maximize the space efficiency and usage of the town’s space, through out the day.
2. Allow program adjustment for the off-season period, avoiding the “ghost town” effect during the winter
3. Improve the coexistence between the 2 main types of users (type A and B tourists).
Master-plan
New street conditions:
Hybrid Hotel / Ayia Napa, Cyprus /
extent the retail and commercial spaces
Hybrid Hotel
Hybrid Hotel / Ayia Napa, Cyprus /
Users: tourists
Young, party-goers seeking an intense night-life experience and cheap accommodation.
popular destinations: Nisi beach, Ayias Mavris street
Cultural tourists seeking for the cultural sites of the area, quiet beaches and comfortable accommodation. popular destinations: Limanaki, Blue Lagoon, local museums and Churches
Existing condition of Ayia Mavris street, the most popular destination for the type A tourists during the night.
Overall diurnal programmatic arrangements:
Hybrid Hotel / Ayia Napa, Cyprus / 2018-2019
Hybrid Hotel / Ayia Napa, Cyprus / 2018-2019
Turning bedroom’s furniture into separated spaces in order to enrich the experience of each space:
Hybrid Hotel / Ayia Napa, Cyprus / 2018-2019
project’s title
IKEA - Jo&Joe Wien
role
Architectural Intern
firm
querkraft architekten
type
Team project
typology
Retail, Hospitality
year 2017-2021
location
Vienna, Austria
role Architectural Intern firm
querkraft architekten
type Team project
typology Retail, Hospitality
year 2017-2021
location Vienna, Austria
software ArchiCAD, Rhino, AutoCAD, Photoshop
photography
Hertha Hurnaus, Robert Charuza, Bernhard Fischer, Regupol
IKEA - Jo&Joe Wien first
car-free IKEA
“a good neighbour”
An urban, car-free furniture store with a hostel in the upper floors and a public roof terrace at the briefing stage the client already formulated the aim: “we want to be a good neighbour”.
Querkraft’s response to this objective is shown by a building that also represents an added value for its surroundings as well as for a lively, ecological city offers.
The outer shell of the building is reminiscent of a shelf. It is a 4.5 meter deep zone that wraps around the building like a shady shelf. it contains room extensions, terraces and greenery as well as serving elements such as lifts, escape stairs, building services elements or toilets.
- Jo&Joe Wien / querkraft / Vienna, Austria / 2017-2021
Contribution to the project:
Participation on the technical realisation of the project, dealing with architectural solutions based on the budget updates, while maintaining the maintain identify of the building, to be a “good neighbour”.
Team member of the team for the interior design of the hostel Jo & Joe that will take place on the last 2 floors of the IKEA building. I was assigned to design the layout details of various spaces of the hostel, like the mountain and the musical themed rooms. Produced multiple photo collages, interpreting the client’s feedback.
IKEA
site plan:
The new IKEA of Vienna has been strategically placed inside the city, next to the Westbahnhof train station, including metro, tram and bus station.
car-free
Vienna’s residents can now visit IKEA without a car, if they wish to just shop small size products. Bigger size products can picked up with a cargo bike or delivered straight to your house.
centered + efficient building services
The building services are based on a simple principle - short distances and direct access. the infrastructure in the building is visible, which results in an increase of the experienceable space.
openness enables interaction
The entrance level is a lively place - a space continuum with an intermediate level and retail areas in front along mariahilferstrasse. The continuous air space in the interior of the building invites visitors to also walk to the upper floors, which are connected by escalators. the roof terrace is also accessible to the public outside retail opening hours.
elevation south section
The hostel of Jo&Joe is located at the last 2 floors:
IKEA - Jo&Joe Wien / querkraft / Vienna, Austria
mix of uses through open floor plan
The prefabricated reinforced concrete columns follow a grid of approx. 10 x 10 meters, which allows a versatile use and design of the rooms for the IKEA floors.
hostel
on the upper two floors is the jo&joe hostel with 345 beds. this mix has created a building that lives 24 hours 7 days a week.
IKEA
- Jo&Joe Wien / querkraft / Vienna, Austria / 2017-2021
Hostel Jo&Joe
A series of photoshop-edited renders for the Jo&Joe Hostel, produced by my self, applying the client’s feedback:
rooftop
Accessible to the public rooftop terrace, offering a panoramic view of Vienna.
160 trees on and around the building
Trees in the facade and on the roof have a noticeable influence on the micro-climate. Greening is the most important measure in the city of Vienna’s “urban heat island strategy plan.
IKEA
project’s title
House of Schools
university campus expansion
role
Architectural Intern
firm
querkraft architekten
type
Team project
typology
Education
year
2020-2024
location
Linz, Austria
role Architectural Intern
firm querkraft architekten
type
Team project
typology Education
year 2020-2024
location Linz, Austria
software ArchiCAD, AutoCAD, Lumion
House of Schools
university campus expansion
The house of schools forms a new attractive courtyard situation in the ensemble of the existing buildings and defines a clear border to the campus edge. The new buildings consider the existing axes as well as the stock of trees on the campus area. The existing main axes are integrated and continued. They thus form a clear system for future campus developments.
By concentrating the volumes in the more central campus area, a large, coherent expansion area for future developments of the jku is provided. The house of schools can easily be extended at the buffer zone without creating windowless fronts. This makes it possible to build either building parts 1 and 2 or building parts 2 and 3 together.
sketches produced during the concept development, by my shelf: Contribution to the project:
Part of the design team, contributed concept and design ideas for the project, focusing on the car-parking garage building, exploring flexible programs and structural technique.
House of Schools / university campus expansion / querkraft / Vienna, Austria | 2020-2024
Master-plan
The flexible building structure of the house of schools creates space for various requirements.
ground floor plan:
floor plan:
2nd
House of Schools / university campus expansion / querkraft / Vienna, Austria |
Open Atrium
An interior open atrium that gives visual access to all of the levels of the building, maximizing the natural light access.
zoom-in section
long section:
zoom-in section
The facade is consists 3 different tipes of shading systems:
Car-parking garage
By keeping the existing parking space in the north-west, the car park can be reduced in size. In case of a future campus extension in the western area, the car park can easily be extended at the same time. Due to the modular construction of the car park, it can also be converted in the future and can be used for leisure time activities by removing ceiling elements.
2025
project’s title
Let’s make Nicosia .. GREAT (again)
type
Team project
university
University of Nicosia ARC
course
S.W.A.T. studio courseMSc Building Technologies
typology
Urban design and analysis
year 2019
location
Nicosia, Cyprus
Let’s make Nicosia .. GREAT (again)
Nicosia is the capital city of Cyprus with many urban challenges. The workshop aimed to propose sustainable strategies, away from its political complexity, taking advantage of new technologies and systems, creating architectural and urban design solutions in order to improve the quality of life in the city.
The project was developed from a team of 14. The drawings that have been done by my self of that I had a contribution to it have been marked with blue. The workshop took place during 2 periods, 2 weeks in March and 2 weeks in May.
Markella Menikou type Team project
university University of Nicosia ARC + TU Delft course
S.W.A.T. studio courseMSc Building Technologies
typology
Urban design and analysis
year 2019
location Nicosia, Cyprus
software Rhino, AutoCAD, Photoshop
tutors:
Graig Martin
courtyard
Our first goal was to explore ways of how can the old city of Nicosia decrease it’s car dependency and became more walk-able.
Faneromeni’s Church
Study area of the workshop:
A smaller area was selected for the analysis, due the limited time of the workshop. This area included the most important areas of the old city of Nicosia, like the Ledra’s street and the Phaneromeni Church.
Putting everything together:
Urban analysis of a selected area in the old city of Nicosia, collecting information and data in order to identify the challenges. buffer
“designated” public spaces
“limited” public spaces
green areas
buildings with flat roofs public transport links
Current conditions in “Public Spaces”:
the challenges:
Cars are E V E R Y W H E R E pavements?? WHAT pavements? ... and when there are public WHERE are the people?
Under the hot sun for about 15 hours per day during the summer
on the pavements
the whole area is filled with parking plots
in streets by the pavements
after 30 minutes of rain
A variety of shading devices and water spray cooling systems are used at Ledras street, in order to decrease the street’s temperature, offering a more pleasant experience for people to walk.
Environmental systems:
A series of rules have been developed that can be applied into different scenarios though out the old city of Nicosia:
rules:
Mobility Park:
Promachonas municipal parking lot is proposed to become a mobility park, as a statement structure. Cars will enter the area underground, as the cars will be automatically lifted on the top of the structure’s roof. Below the structure, a variety of “green” vehicles will be available for rent, like bikes and scooters. Since all car streets will be closed, extra space for the Central Bus Station can be used.
Balconies:
Exposed balconies are absorbing all the heat throughout the day, forcing the users of the interiors to use air conditioning for an extensive amount of hours. A light wooden structure with a mess is proposed to allow vegetation to grow along the facade and turn into a shading device.
Keeping a specific route open for supplying trucks to unload their supplies into the old parking garages that now became storage centers, were the shops owners can go pick up their supplies with electric trolleys: existing conditions
“Last Mile”
Private parking:
Surprisingly, the old city of Nicosia has a lot of private parking lots, taking over valuable space and even whole buildings out of the area. Open areas can turn into public leisure areas for a heat break. The roof’s structure is proposed to accommodate solar panels, taking advantage of the 320 days of sun per year.
Residential and Mixed Buildings:
The old city of Nicosia is a very vibrant area that many of the city’s students and young professionals would love to live in. Student and affordable housing units are proposed, as a contemporary extension on top of the flat roofs.
