Cyprus School of Architecture

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The Cyprus School of Architecture is a new school of Architecture for a new era. The often turbulent world in which we live is decreasingly addressed by the pedagogies of traditional architectural institutions. Their is an increasing disconnect between pedegogy and practice. CYSOA proposes a place for radical and experimental approaches to architectural production.
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Position - As most prominent traditional architectural schools tend to be positioned in a small number of Western European and North American urban centres, we are positioned in between city and country, and in between East and West. With staff and students from around the world, and courses taught in English, CYSOA is deliberately international.

Relevance – The subjects that we negotiate involve real-world situations based on existing territories so that we might use architecture to interrogate socio-political tensions over contested territories.

Methodology – Through an even emphasis on emerging technology and traditional craft techniques, we propose the architecture as actor on the 'real', not just producer of digital information.

Entrepreneurial – because we constantly seek new ways of operating and are open to ideas from outside architecture.
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The Cyprus School of Architecture is a constituent part of the Cyprus College of Art, founded in 1969 by the distinguished Cypriot painter Stass Paraskos. Stass died in March 2014, but his vision of a space for artists, art students and art lovers to come together, share studio space and enjoy the simple act of making art lives on.

The College is located in the village of Lempa, located about 4 kilometres north of the historic town of Paphos. Paphos is European City of Culture 2017, but the Cyprus College of Art has been a centre for culture in Paphos for many decades.

When it was founded in 1969 the College was located in the city of Famagusta. It moved to Paphos after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, which was then a deserted village. Stass, his wife Mary, and numerous artists from all over the world came to live and work at the College, and began turning Lempa from an "ghost village" with a population of 10 people, into the vibrant living community it is today.