Luxury Marina of ancient Cypriot city | Scott Brownrigg

Waterfront redevelopment of ancient Cypriot city creates cruise hub & luxury marina

International architecture and design practice Scott Brownrigg is submitting a planning application to redevelop a 28 hectares city centre site at Larnaca Port and Marina in Cyprus. The project aims to reinvigorate the ancient Byzantine city of Larnaca, transforming it into a major cruise and marine destination at the heart of the Eastern Mediterranean, with a mixed use public waterfront environment rivalling the best the world has to offer. The scheme expands the dilapidated marina to a 950 berth state-of-the-art facility and converts the existing commercial port to combine commercial, mega-yacht and cruise facility uses. The new cruise berths are located on an off-shore jetty; a strategy unseen outside the Caribbean.

Scott Brownrigg’s over-arching architectural concept for this complex project is for the buildings to share a ‘weightless dynamic’, using mass and folding surfaces to create a rich, organic, harmonious new architecture for Larncka. Scott Brownrigg’s proposal creates an axis from the old castle along the beachfront, to a new concert hall and extensive waterfront park. Ribbons of overlapping boulevards and promenades emanate from the park along the waterfront and boundaries, linking the existing city to the new spaces and buildings.

The development provides a complementary extension to the city centre, within a waterfront setting, and comprises 250,000 sq m of diverse mixed use components including; a new Marina Quarter with a multi-purpose grand piazza for events, exhibitions and outside concerts; a striking new Yacht Club, designed as a ‘floating’ open-ended tube of accommodation, links the land to the marina, and is reminiscent of a dry docked sea faring vessel; a new Cruise Terminal Building, will form a gateway to and from the island.

The building’s form is derived from its function, and is essentially two overlapping Ls on their sides, which control movement into the building at ground floor and to the cruise ship at first floor, whilst protecting the privacy of the surrounding high rise residences; Marina Basin and Marina Park waterside residences will be low key and sensitive in relation to the existing low-rise immediate context; the Port Promontory’s tall, organic ‘floating’ towers will form a new, instantly identifiable, backdrop and gateway to the city, as they rise from the ground toward the sea along the long port ‘finger’ breakwater.

All buildings target a BREEAM Excellent rating and will be cooled via passive and geo-thermal sea water systems.