Iron Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2022
Villa Troy Residential House
- A' Design Award 2022 Iron Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 10,728
- Verification code B47C3F4FED · Verify this award
About Villa Troy Residential House
Villa Troy is a private house located on the outskirts of greater Nicosia. The internal covered area is 340 square meters, and the home serves a family of four. Living spaces are arranged in an irregular L-shape among verandas and a garden. The open plan ground level holds the lounge, the living room and the dining room, which develop around a double height void at the vestibule. Stone cladding on the front wall recalls the walls of Troy, and five metal brackets recall ancient spears. The placement of the building supports natural ventilation and daylight.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Living spaces, arranged in an irregular L-shape, are placed amidst a cluster of outdoor areas, including verandas and a garden.
The open-plan ground level accommodates the lounge, the living and dining rooms. The double-height void at the vestibule becomes the core around which those three integrated parts of the house develop.
The building’s placement enhances natural ventilation and lighting, and large openings add to the connection between inside and out. - Dimensions & Packaging
- The 340 square meters internal cover area, private house in the outskirts of greater Nicosia was designed to feature contemporary aesthetics, acquiring permanence with the use of timeless materials. Concurrently, the house caters to the needs of a family of four, facilitating communication and comfort.
- Tags
- Trojan home, Villa Troy, timeless materials, contemporary, sustainable design
- Production Technology
- The choice of stone cladding on a loadbearing wall on the façade, as well as on the enclosure at the back of the property, hints at the walls of Troy.
Metal, applied in many components, is another significant material from that time: the façade features five ornamental brackets whose angular form alludes to the trojan war spears. The original metal door and the vertical metal railings shape the home enclosure.
The open-plan ground level accommodates the lounge, the living and dining rooms. The double-height void at the vestibule becomes the core around which those three integrated parts of the house develop.
The fireplace, dominating the ground level, functions as divider at the limit between the vestibule, living room, and dining area. Its glass enclosure on three sides allows the hearth to be visible from all adjacent spaces.
The base of the fireplace is clad in ceramic tiles emulating fair-face concrete; this material also dresses the dining room wall, featuring the portrait paintings of Paris and Helen. The fair-face concrete ceramic pairs well with the floor tiling, emulating Calacatta marble. This material covers the entire ground floor of the house, assigning luxury and elegance. - Design Challenge
- The name of the project is Troy and we wanted to design something which bring the design in a modern design of today , that make it difficult but interesting to indicated methods of the design and timeless materials which represent that era.
- Project Duration
- The project started on January 2019 and finished in September 2021.
Our office was responsible for the Architectural design, Interior design , project management , supervision, lighting design and structural design - Operation Flow
- The open-plan ground level accommodates the lounge, the living and dining rooms. The double-height void at the vestibule becomes the core around which those three integrated parts of the house develop.
- Research
- We wanted to design something based on the Mediterranean design and a sustainable design.
A global environmental crisis under the guise of climate change is development model planning has been promoting across the word.
We install photovoltaics panels and the house is design to become a zero energy efficient - Inspiration
- The architect Renos Constantinou chooses to bestow the house with identity, alluding to the owners’ names: Paris and Helen. Mythology provides inspiration for designing a contemporary Trojan home, the Villa Troy
- Image Credits
- Pantelis Hadjiminas
- Patents
- Copyrights belong to ACA Architects, 2022
Colors of Villa Troy Residential House
Design Interview about Villa Troy Residential House
The 340m² private house in the outskirts of greater Nicosia was designed to feature contemporary aesthetics, acquiring permanence with the use of timeless materials. Concurrently, the house caters to the needs of a family of four, facilitating communication and comfort.
The building’s placement enhances natural ventilation and lighting, and large openings add to the connection between inside and out.
I am planning to make some exhibitions and show our work and inform them about the award which is very important for us. We are proud for it.
The concept idea 4 months and the final design 9 months
Thank you for the question. I chooses to bestow the house with identity, alluding to the owners’ names: Paris and Helen. Mythology provides inspiration for designing a contemporary “Trojan” home, the “Villa Troy”.
The design is for our customer
Concurrently, the house caters to the needs of a family of four, facilitating communication and comfort.
Everything was designed by me and our office. Architecture design, Interior design, Lighting design, furniture design etc
The design is for a family
The choice of stone cladding on a loadbearing wall on the façade, as well as on the enclosure at the back of the property, hints at the walls of Troy.
Metal, applied in many components, is another significant material from that time: the façade features five ornamental brackets whose angular form alludes to the trojan war spears; The original metal door and the vertical metal railings shape the home enclosure.
Metal, applied in many components, is another significant material from that time: the façade features five ornamental brackets whose angular form alludes to the trojan war spears; The original metal door and the vertical metal railings shape the home enclosure.
The architect Renos Constantinou chooses to bestow the house with identity, alluding to the owners’ names: Paris and Helen. Mythology provides inspiration for designing a contemporary “Trojan” home, the “Villa Troy”.
This is a very important question thank you for asking.
We give emphasis on new methods and technology to revitalize our services.
We start working on site analysis using drone scanning. In addition, using them for site scanning and feedback during the construction process, even taking the incorporation of drone scanning a step further by integrating drone data feedback loops into their design practice.
3D printing is one of technology’s most revolutionary innovations, with the potential to change the face of so many industries including architecture. When presenting to clients or exploring design in further details, creating a 3D-printed model can help both designers and clients see a clearer picture of the project, seeing how a design interacts with its surroundings.
Building Information Modeling (BIM) throughout the design process helps to improve quality and accelerates design processes with integrated workflows for concept design, modeling, multidiscipline coordination, and construction.
We give emphasis on new methods and technology to revitalize our services.
We start working on site analysis using drone scanning. In addition, using them for site scanning and feedback during the construction process, even taking the incorporation of drone scanning a step further by integrating drone data feedback loops into their design practice.
3D printing is one of technology’s most revolutionary innovations, with the potential to change the face of so many industries including architecture. When presenting to clients or exploring design in further details, creating a 3D-printed model can help both designers and clients see a clearer picture of the project, seeing how a design interacts with its surroundings.
Building Information Modeling (BIM) throughout the design process helps to improve quality and accelerates design processes with integrated workflows for concept design, modeling, multidiscipline coordination, and construction.
Sustainability was a key factor in the design of the house, emphasizing solar protection, natural ventilation and the use of photovoltaic / solar panels. The swimming pool was placed adjacent to the living room, for natural cooling
The building’s placement enhances natural ventilation and lighting, and large openings add to the connection between inside and out.
The design of the building façade appears opaque, dressed in adjustable aluminum strip cladding from top to bottom. This custom design device allows ventilation and protects the residence privacy. The aluminum panels play an important role in the passive cooling of the interior and, during the night, provide insulation from moisture.
The building’s placement enhances natural ventilation and lighting, and large openings add to the connection between inside and out.
The design of the building façade appears opaque, dressed in adjustable aluminum strip cladding from top to bottom. This custom design device allows ventilation and protects the residence privacy. The aluminum panels play an important role in the passive cooling of the interior and, during the night, provide insulation from moisture.
Enginerr4u Civil engineers
workflows for concept design, modeling, multidiscipline coordination, and construction.
I have mentioned it above
The existing environment
Is very important to be part of an international competitions in order to have a good feedback
We had to manage the time very well and the timeframe
Grand Interview about Villa Troy Residential House
Architecture is at its most powerful when it tells a story that is deeply personal to its inhabitants. When I discovered the owners’ names were Paris and Helen, it felt like a cosmic invitation to bridge the gap between classical antiquity and contemporary Mediterranean living. The names immediately evoked the legendary city of Troy, prompting a central question: What would a Trojan home look like if it were built today?Instead of literal historical replication, I used mythology as a narrative framework. The design explores the duality of the names—the legendary romance, the grandeur of a fortified city, and the drama of epic poetry. It allowed us to bestow the structure with an unmistakable, poetic identity, turning a 340-square-meter private family residence into a modern-day citadel where history and everyday life beautifully coexist.
The materials chosen for the exterior act as visual metaphors for the legendary Bronze Age city. To emulate the famous, impenetrable walls of Troy, we strategically utilized heavy stone cladding on a prominent load-bearing wall along the façade, extending this texture to the enclosure at the rear of the property. This grounds the house, offering a sense of permanence and security.To contrast this earthy, protective shield, we introduced sharp, precise metal elements—a material that defined the era of the Trojan War. The five custom-designed ornamental brackets on the façade are a direct tribute to this history; their angular, aerodynamic forms mimic the spears of ancient warriors. By rendering these historical textures into clean lines and bold minimalist geometric forms, the materials bridge centuries, transforming ancient defensive motifs into striking contemporary ornamentation.
From a functional standpoint, the double-height void at the vestibule serves as the absolute physical and volumetric core of the home. In an open-plan layout, it is easy for spaces to bleed together without definition. This vertical volume acts as an anchor, allowing the lounge, living area, and dining room to unfold seamlessly around it while establishing a grand sense of arrival.Mythologically, the void honors the grand, scale-defying courts of epic palaces. It draws the eye upward, celebrating space and light while fostering effortless visual and acoustic communication between the ground-floor social spaces and the private quarters upstairs. It symbolizes the open, welcoming heart of a home designed for a modern family of four, while preserving the dramatic volume you would expect when stepping into a space inspired by legend.
The pairing of fair-face concrete ceramic tiles with Calacatta marble-emulating flooring was an intentional study in contrasts, designed to strike a balance between industrial permanence and classical luxury.Villa Troy needed to feel anchored and secure—evoking the architectural weight of historical fortresses—while remaining a highly sophisticated, airy contemporary home.The Fair-Face Concrete Ceramics: This choice injected a raw, tactile, and minimalist element into the interior. It acts as an architectural nod to structural permanence without the logistical and environmental weight of pouring raw concrete indoors.The Calacatta Marble Emulation: To prevent the concrete aesthetic from feeling overly cold or brutally industrial, the expansive, high-gloss Calacatta marble-inspired slabs were introduced. The fluid, organic veining of the marble softens the rigid, linear quality of the concrete surfaces.By utilizing advanced, large-format ceramic slabs rather than real quarried marble and poured concrete, the design achieved flawless visual continuity, high durability, and a polished elegance that honors classical material beauty through a modern lens.
The main challenge was ensuring that sustainable, performance-driven design did not compromise the home's deep-rooted storytelling. The narrative—inspired by the owners' names, Paris and Helen—is woven directly into the sustainable orientation of the structure.Natural Ventilation & Structural Form: The house is arranged in an irregular L-shape, explicitly situated to capture the prevailing Mediterranean cross-breezes of the Nicosia outskirts. This structural footprint mimics the idea of a protective, defensive enclosure (reminiscent of the legendary walls of Troy) while naturally funneling air through the living spaces to reduce reliance on mechanical cooling.Lighting and Openings: Large, strategically placed glass openings break up the heavy, defensive stone cladding of the exterior. While the stone facade hints at an impenetrable ancient fortress, these expansive windows flood the double-height central vestibule with natural daylight.By using the "fortress wall" concept defensively against harsh solar heat gain on specific orientations, and opening up the living areas to the north and east, the mythological identity and zero-energy bioclimatic efficiency work as a unified system.
The three-sided glass fireplace functions as the spatial anchor of the ground level. The execution presented significant architectural and structural challenges, primarily concerning structural suspension, thermal dynamics, and visual continuity. Structural Load Minimization: Because the hearth sits at the intersection of the double-height vestibule, the living room, and the dining room, the heavy chimney breast had to be structurally suspended from above. The goal was to avoid bulky, intrusive support columns that would disrupt the visual flow between these three distinct zones.Thermal Management & Material Transitions: Encasing a high-heat feature entirely in glass required strict detailing where the glass meets the base—which is clad in fair-face concrete ceramic tiles. The design required custom expansion joints to prevent the heat from cracking the surrounding masonry or shifting the precise alignment of the floor-to-ceiling ceramic panels.Sightline Optimization: The ultimate goal was transparency. Managing the internal flue and mechanical extraction without obstructing the three exposed sides required routing the utilities through a highly condensed, hidden vertical core. This ensures that the flame remains a completely unobstructed, shared focal point from every angle of the open-plan layout.
Receiving the Iron A' Design Award for Villa Troy validates a core philosophy: contemporary architecture does not need to abandon history to be forward-thinking. Instead, historical narratives can serve as a powerful conceptual tool to give a building a distinct soul.For future residential projects, this recognition reinforces the commitment to narrative-driven architecture. It proves that clients are looking for more than just functional, minimalist boxes; they respond deeply to homes tailored to their personal identity, history, or geography.Moving forward, this accolade encourages pushing the boundaries of contextual design. It dictates an approach where ancient architectural metaphors—like the Trojan war spears translated into the villa's five angular facade brackets—are abstracted into sleek, functional, and contemporary details rather than literal, historicist replicas.Grand Interview Question 08: Portrait Paintings of Paris and HelenIntegrating the custom portrait paintings of Paris and Helen directly into the ceramic-clad dining room wall was a move to blur the line between architecture and art, directly cementing the home's conceptual origin.The Conceptual Anchor: Because the entire architectural brief hinges on the owners' namesakes, the dining room wall acts as the literal centerpiece of this mythological theme. Placing the portraits here turns a communal gathering space into a gallery-like experience that tells the story of the home.Material Juxtaposition: The choice of canvas and artistic paint texture creates an intentional contrast against the flat, raw, industrial backdrop of the fair-face concrete ceramic tiles. Rather than hanging the art as an afterthought, the portraits were designed to be framed by and embedded against the rigid grids of the large-scale architectural slabs. This integration ensures the art feels like an extension of the wall itself, grounding the romance of the myth within the clean lines of modern Mediterranean minimalism.
Integrating the custom portrait paintings of Paris and Helen directly into the ceramic-clad dining room wall was a deliberate move to blur the line between architecture and art, directly cementing the home's conceptual origin.Because the entire architectural brief hinges on the owners' namesakes, the dining room wall acts as the literal centerpiece of this mythological theme. Placing the portraits here turns a communal gathering space into a gallery-like experience that tells the story of the home.The choice of canvas and artistic paint texture creates an intentional contrast against the flat, raw, industrial backdrop of the fair-face concrete ceramic tiles. Rather than hanging the art as an afterthought, the portraits were designed to be framed by and embedded against the rigid grids of the large-scale architectural slabs. This integration ensures the art feels like an extension of the wall itself, grounding the romance of the myth within the clean lines of modern Mediterranean minimalism.
The irregular L-shaped layout of Villa Troy was driven by a dual purpose: maximizing site-specific environmental mechanics and deepening the project’s overarching Homeric narrative.From a Functional StandpointThe L-configuration acts as a highly responsive microclimate regulator. By breaking away from a rigid rectangular block, the shape optimizes the building's footprint to capture the dominant local wind currents. Combined with expansive structural openings, it encourages continuous natural cross-ventilation and floods the interior living zones with indirect, soft daylight. Additionally, it naturally carves out a sheltered outdoor courtyard, establishing a seamless, private indoor-outdoor transition where the interior spaces visually spill out into the verandas and gardens.From a Storytelling StandpointThe irregular, fragmented geometry functions as a physical metaphor for exploration and defense. Rather than revealing the entire home at once, the L-shape forces a gradual progression of sightlines. Moving through the double-height vestibule and around the living spaces mimics the journey through a storied landscape. It mirrors the protective, cellular nature of ancient architectural enclaves, keeping certain private quarters hidden from immediate view while celebrating the central communal courtyard.
As a designer, the most fulfilling aspect of creating Villa Troy was proving that a heavy, narrative-driven concept does not have to compromise the strict, high-performance demands of modern sustainable architecture.It was incredibly rewarding to watch historical symbolism double as functional, green design elements. For instance, the heavy, stone-clad loadbearing wall on the façade—inspired by the impenetrable, historic walls of Troy—serves a vital structural role while providing high thermal mass to keep the interior spaces insulated against the Mediterranean heat. Similarly, the ornamental metal brackets that mimic Trojan war spears give the building a striking, contemporary identity while accentuating the orientation of the structure, which is perfectly placed to run on zero-energy efficient systems and integrated photovoltaic panels.The ultimate reward was achieving total cohesion: delivering a house that honors ancient epic poetry in its aesthetics, but functions completely as a forward-thinking, low-impact haven for the future.