WHO WE ARE
J+A Philippou is an award-winning architectural and engineering practice based in Nicosia, Cyprus. It operates from its own specially-designed premises, with a total staff of about 50 qualified architects, urbanists, civil and structural engineers, designers and technicians, as well as supportive administrative personnel.
Over and above these colleagues, the practice has gradually established time-tested professional collaborations with all other disciplines and domains of expertise pertaining to the building industry – such as, mechanical, electrical, geotechnical, hydrological, transport, and environmental engineering, but also landscape and interior architecture, market-analysis and feasibility studies, as well as health and safety consultation and project management.
As such, J+A Philippou is geared to provide integrated and coordinated services for the entire spectrum of disciplines in the building industry, for projects of all scales, sectors and genres – with varying degrees of complexity. Internal protocol abides to the RIBA Plan of Work for all stages of design and implementation, alongside the required input from specialist consultants – as and when necessary.
OUR Approach
J+A Philippou architects-engineers is a multidisciplinary practice not only in the sense of a series of diversely qualified professionals working in concert, but also – and especially – in terms of the practice’s design approach.
Thus, projects emerge at the productive intersection between a number of fields of knowledge and expertise, rather than assuming that design services adhere to simple, linear, processes of development. In this sense, the practice’s modus operandi challenges the traditional dilemma supposedly underlying the careers of consultants in the building industry. According to this dilemma, a service professional and a consultant with experimental impulses belong to diametrically-opposite categories, with the former usually associated with ‘practice’ while the latter with ‘academia’.
This is in accord with conventional wisdom, according to which service professionals seek to proficiently address the requirements of programme, budget and client, while consultants interested in experimental speculation seek to transform the possibilities of their respective field (of knowledge). Yet the aforementioned approach is part and parcel of a more thoughtful problematisation of practice – one affiliated with active reflection and thoughtful action.
OUR HISTORY
The practice was founded in 1960 by Jacques and Andreas Philippou and was initially based within the historic core of Nicosia, Cyprus. Chronologically-speaking, the formation of the practice coincided with the independence of the island from colonial rule and the foundation of the Republic of Cyprus.
In the ensuing years, dramatic urban change was underway all over the country. During this intensely-transitional period, the office was primarily involved in educational projects, as well as commercial and residential developments at various scales. This was facilitated by establishing competent design teams of qualified professionals (both within its workforce and through external collaborations), thus enabling the practice to become an early local leader both in design excellence and in harnessing the possibilities of a multidisciplinary approach to the building industry.
With the development of the country’s institutional depth, as well as the associated growth of the local economy, the practice extended its activities into cultural and health institutions, tourist and hospitality developments, business and commercial buildings, leisure and sports facilities, infrastructural and military installations, as well as urban design and strategy.
