Harvard in Cyprus

The Harvard School of Public Health has established the Cyprus International Institute (CII) to conduct research, and offer instruction both to full time students and as continuing education. Harvard faculty and students will frequently reside in Cyprus [for more information on CII and its vision please see www.hsph.harvard.edu/cyprus].CII must establish its own facilities by December 2008, according to the agreement between the government of Cyprus and Harvard. This studio will focus on the design of the new CII facilities, based on the following premises: The facilities will house CII\’s institutional program of approximately 30,000 sqft, to reach 100,000 sqft for 250 people within 10 years, and should develop a formal and typological model appropriate for this. They should generate a sense of \’community\’, serving permanent and transient members from different parts of the world, while being continuously \”connected\” to the Boston campus, as CII is an official satellite facility of Harvard Should emphasize on sustainability, developing an architecture that is in dialogue with both the setting and the region while reflecting the image of an Institute devoted to environmental issues and public healthThe setting for the new facilities is on the waterfront, on the south coast of the island. The Harvard facilities will be the cornerstone of a technological park for applied research that is currently under planning by the local authorities.The studio is sponsored through the agreement of the government of Cyprus and the Harvard School of Public Health. It includes a trip to Cyprus in October, where the studio will relocate to the current facilities of CII in Nicosia. During the trip, the studio will visit the site, conduct a series of meetings with the authorities and architects, and have a charrette and review. During the trip, students may attend some GSD courses through videoconferencing. The work of the students and essays on the main research issues will be presented in a publication that may serve as the basis for an international open architectural competition.Prof. S.N. PollalisAssisted by Michael Cosmas, MAUD\’00, architect, Nicosia, CyprusSustainability consultant: Dr. Nico Kielzl, DDes\’03, Atelier Ten, NYC.With the contribution of the School of Public Health to define the program and consult on sustainability and air quality issuesTeaching Assistant: David deVillar, architect, DDes candidate