A modern Art and Design Centre is going to be built in Larnaca.
The city's mayor, Andreas Viras, announced this on Monday, 12 May.
The world-famous London architectural company Foster + Partners is working on the design for the project. The architects promise to show their first designs by September 2025.
The press release says that the Cultural Centre will be built on the coast of Larnaca, in an area where there used to be fuel tanks. Petrolina has set aside a big piece of land, covering more than 4,000 square metres, for the project. The plan is to build a large complex made up of three separate but connected parts: an Arts Centre, a Design Centre and a People's Museum.
The Arts Centre will include:
- There is a big hall that can hold 1,500 people. Events like opera, symphony concerts, conferences and official ceremonies are held there.
- It is a small stage that can hold around 150 people. It will host various theatre productions, performances and chamber events.
- There were two exhibition spaces. They focused on visual arts, digital projects, sound, movement and media.
The Design Centre plans to combine traditional Larnaca crafts (pottery, weaving, and Cypriot lace) with modern technologies, including digital design and 3D printing. This part of the project will be a place where masters, designers, artisans and start-ups can work together. There will be a space for training, workshops and a business incubator for developing folk crafts in the modern era.
The Museum of People will be a special place in Cyprus. Unlike traditional museums, there won't be any permanent exhibitions or displays that stay in one place. Instead, visitors will enter a space that is always changing. It will have interactive stories about ordinary people, art installations and social projects. The museum will focus on the everyday life of Cypriots, how people move between the island and other countries, what makes people who they are and how they remember the past.
The project is expected to cost €30 million. The main investors are the developer Land of Tomorrow Larnaca and the European Union, which supports cultural development in the region.
The Art and Design Centre is expected to become a key part of the Larnaca 2030 programme, which is Larnaca's bid to become European Capital of Culture.
The city has already reached the national final, where it is competing with Limassol. The new cultural centre could be very important in helping the city win and make it the place to be for the creative economy in Cyprus in the future.
The new Arts and Design Centre in Larnaca is an investment in the cultural future of the region. It will combine tradition and innovation, local people and international artists, art and technology. This space will change the coastal area and become the heart of Larnaca's cultural life, which will make it well-known in Europe.