A striking new residential project has emerged in the suburbs of Nicosia, Cyprus, challenging conventional home design with its bold architectural approach. Studio Kyriakos Miltiadou has created AER, a suburban residence that stands as an austere, introverted concrete box rather than opening outward to showcase the surrounding landscape views. The house is situated near a sparse forest area and offers intriguing vistas over the Nicosia suburbs.

The architectural concept represents a systematic reinterpretation of the basic dwelling-box in relation to contemporary domestic living patterns. The design process began with a three-dimensional grid system, creating a lattice of points that formed the basic outline of a box with a 14x17-meter floor plan. Through a deliberate process of erosion, fragments of the natural landscape gradually infiltrate the box structure, triggering its progressive fragmentation and resulting in a complex prismatic composition of voids and solid spaces.

Four vertical concrete walls, each standing six meters high, wrap around the fragmented box structure, holding the split volumes together within a coherent yet fluid architectural whole. These walls feature carefully carved vertical cuts that serve as mediators between the interior and exterior environments. The cuts function to filter light, provide protection, frame specific views, and reveal selected aspects of the surroundings, creating a sophisticated dialogue with the forest, city, and sky.

The residence unfolds in what the architects describe as a 'cube within a cube' formation, creating a morphologically unfamiliar yet deeply primal architectural expression. An austere but perforated concrete shell is encased within another layer, standing like an archaic stone structure within its natural context. The building acts as a collector, absorbing both tangible and intangible elements of its surroundings and reinterpreting them in relation to the family's domestic lifestyle.

Entry to the house is marked by a vertical slit on the east facade, emphasizing the transition from the exterior world to the building's inner sanctum. Upon entering, residents and visitors encounter an open yet sheltered garden that serves as a central compositional element around which daily family life unfolds. This focal garden space is part of a continuous network of outdoor areas, passages, and courtyards that surround the built mass both vertically and horizontally.

The interior organization spans four distinct levels, each carefully planned in relation to the surrounding network of outdoor spaces. The ground floor houses the public areas, including the kitchen, dining room, and living spaces that flow seamlessly together. The upper level contains private rooms that unfold across two different planes, while intermediate spaces provide fluid transitions between the house's functional units, softening the boundaries between public and private domestic spheres.

A hidden external staircase leads to a small rooftop terrace where the roof appears to dissolve into the intense Mediterranean blue sky. Much of the roof surface features native vegetation plantings that help create unique microclimatic conditions. A horizontal aperture at the terrace's far end frames a captivating view of the distant forest and mountain ranges, connecting the house visually to its broader landscape context.

The structural and architectural design operates as a unified monolithic entity, constructed entirely from exposed concrete. The sculpted concrete surfaces envelop human activities, transforming the space into a true dwelling environment. Over time, vegetation is expected to climb the exterior walls, gradually softening the structure's monolithic presence and creating a continuous, inseparable interplay between human activity, architecture, and the natural environment.

The central atrium space serves as the organizing principle around which all functional areas of the residence are arranged. Large sliding glass doors throughout the house blur the traditional boundaries between interior and exterior spaces, reinforcing the design's emphasis on connecting indoor living with the natural environment. The inner garden receives abundant natural light from above and features plantings of local vegetation, creating a unique garden space nested within the broader landscape.

The project demonstrates how contemporary residential architecture can reinterpret traditional dwelling concepts while responding to specific environmental and cultural contexts. Through its innovative use of concrete, strategic placement of openings, and integration of indoor and outdoor spaces, AER represents a sophisticated approach to suburban living that prioritizes privacy and introspection while maintaining meaningful connections to the natural surroundings.