A Visit to the Cyprus Archaeological Museum
Following a series of lectures from the early civilisations, such as Mesopotamia, and the rise of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, students had to visit the Cyprus Archaeological Museum in order to browse, sketch, and document exhibits that grasped their attention.
After selecting one of these exhibits, in a group of 3, they had to discursively create an architectural "scene" where the exhibit could be placed, revealing spatial minutiae of everydayness in ancient Cyprus.
A Visit to the House of Hatzigeorgakis Kornesios (Ethnological Museum)
Following a series of lectures discussing Byzantine and Islamic architecture, as well as the architecture during medieval times, students visited the House of Hatzigeorgakis Kornesios; the Cypriot Dragoman in Nicosia during the Ottoman period. The students visited the house to socio-spatially read its various elements, such as the courtyard, the crest above the entrance, and the fountain, among others. These elements highlight the privileged position of the Dragoman, who was inevitably in constant retreat; the confinement, but also the emancipation of women within the private space of the home; and the ambivalence of an ethnic/religious identity, contested by historical layers in place (elements from antiquity, the Lusignan, the Venetian, the Ottoman, and the British colonial rule).