APAP's glass and concrete pavilion extends a 1970s house in Nicosia, Cyprus

The original house, built in the 1970s on a wooded plot in Nicosia, is organised around two parallel load-bearing walls. For its new 133-square-metre extension, called DIAGONAL, the practice APAP (Alexis Papadopoulos with Maria Giannakou) set that idea aside. It built a pavilion from two horizontal planes, floor and roof, that cantilever out towards the central courtyard and into the surrounding tree canopy.

The unusual part is that there was no fixed brief. The room has no built-in partitions and no set purpose, so it can take on whatever domestic use the years bring. Glazing around the edges turns the concrete and glass shell into a screen for moving leaf shadows and daylight, with views of trunks and foliage on every side.

After dark, a bespoke four-part diagonal light hanging from the centre of the ceiling takes over. Made with Ioannides Lighting, it uses three colour temperatures: very warm red towards the sides, very cool white up to the ceiling and warmer white down onto the floor. Together they trace the room's diagonal, dividing the space without a single wall, while from outside the pavilion glows like a lit vitrine.

This is a private home, and the story reached designboom as a reader submission from the architects, so read it as the studio's own account. Worth a look for anyone planning an extension that lets light do the work.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 4 November 2026. Read the original

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