Reverse Desertification - Cyprus [v.4]

studio messiosmarios

Complete Project: http://messiosmarios.com/desertification.html

The island of Cyprus is suffering with desertification. During the summer times the temperatures reach 45 degrees and during the the whole span of a year the rainwater accumulation is far from sufficient for the hierarchical distribution. It can be resolved if new theories are proposed, visualised and applied. It is the accumulation of rain and it's distribution that can define and revitalise the island. At the early stages of the project we were focusing on the existing agriculture’s need for water and later on a community was evolved. Housing, courtyards, gardens and new agriculture was introduced with a functional roof that distributes water. ​

The project started with the visualisation of GIS-data into an informative and communicative way to bring awareness to non-experts on desertification effective layers. The main aim was to introduce guidance and proposals on the matter of rainwater collection, saving and distribution.

The geoportal website of the Cypriot Government provides a great amount of GIS data and all are open-source. It is from there that we take initiative and on the way to developing a software that brings awareness on environmental issues concerning Cyprus.


The housing units derive from an algorithmic exploration on traditional houses in Cyprus. Morphologies were created based on the attributes that a house offers.

​Depending on the needs of each room (light,ventilation,publicity, greenery) the algorithm unfolded a massive amount of housing typologies. By adding yet another layer of parameters (ratio of housing and courtyards, ratio of rainwater collection and greenery etc.) the algorithm resulted in the appropriate design. ​


It is the combination of working manually and parametrically that brings together the best functional, spatial and aesthetic proposal. From the result of the masterplan algorithm we apply our knowledge on architectural composition for the final touches (accessibility from all sides, eliminating dead corners etc.).