The Youth Centre in Paphos is a competition project by Trichonas Architecture, built around a single design constraint: a new civic building inserted into an existing historic complex. Rather than a monolithic addition, the proposal breaks the programme into smaller volumes that defer to the original structure without disappearing behind it. The new intervention reads as a coherent ensemble, not as an extension.
CATEGORY | Competition Entry
CLIENT | Trichonas Architecture
COMPLETION | 2024
Outside, exposed concrete in a neutral tone keeps the new volumes quiet against the existing fabric. The entrance sequence moves through a covered passage that mediates between street and courtyard, old building and new. Inside, the main gathering space uses a curved timber ceiling that runs the full length of the room — a warmer register than the exterior suggests, and a deliberate counterpoint to the concrete shell that wraps it.
The primary interior space is oriented toward a full-height glazed wall that opens directly onto the courtyard. The curved timber ribs above pull the eye toward that opening, and the light that comes through it changes the room across the day. Seating is arranged informally around a low platform, keeping the space flexible between presentation, workshop, and gathering formats. IDAA developed both exterior and interior visualization for this competition entry, working to communicate the spatial argument of the project before it reaches a jury.
