The fourth edition of SHARE Cyprus 2024 – International Architecture Forum will be held at Nicosia Municipal Theater on 16th April. The event is organised by SHARE Architects, the leading networking platform for architects in Central and South Eastern Europe, in partnership with Cyprus Architects Association (CAA) and the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK).

This article revisits the international speakers set to grace the stage at this edition of SHARE Cyprus 2024, such as Ingrid Van Der Heijden, Co-founder CIVIC ARCHITECTS, Thomas Coldef, Founder Coldefy Architects, and Dean Lah, Founder ENOTA STUDIO.

Ingrid Van Der Heijden is deeply preoccupied with framing the architectural creative process within the broader context of civic engagement and sustainability, cultivating a responsible and sensible attitude towards the built environment. While operating carefully in the given environment, she seeks experimentation through materials, their sensorial qualities, and the numerous possibilities they offer. From laboriously- thought details to bigger scale plans, Civic takes on various building missions and commissions, from libraries, bridges, cultural buildings, town halls, squares, educational and residential buildings, to streets, sculptures and stations. In their own words, “good design solves problems, great design combines this with the sublime, sensual, delirious, beautiful, brobdingnagian or thought-provoking. Occasionally we are lucky enough to create something exceptional.”

Civic Architects does not approach architecture as an autonomous self-sufficient discipline, but as a public task and a dialogue with the current social, cultural, economic and ecological context. While engaging in the relevant issues of the dynamic present and finding tactful solutions, they also work with the past and its built matter through adaptive reuse projects such as LocHal Public library in Tilburg, The faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) and The Shoe Museum.

LocHal Public library in Tilburg – Civic Architects

Thomas Coldefy is a French architect, Founding Partner, and Principal of Coldefy, overseeing general management and artistic direction of the studio. His winning entry together with Isabel Van Haute for the Hong Kong Design Institute, completed in 2011, brought the firm international exposure. He believes in and strives for a multi-scale and diverse spectrum of projects to enrich the creative culture of the office, along with a constant search for innovation and stepping outside the boundaries, meanwhile providing a great service to clients. Prior to Coldefy he worked for renown architecture offices in Paris, London, and New York. Thomas gives numerous lectures, and the work of Coldefy is the subject of publications and exhibitions both in France and internationally. He received the Asia “40 under 40” prize organized by Perspective, as well as the European “40 under 40” prize organized by the European Centre for Architecture Art design and Urban Studies and the Chicago Athenaeum. In 2014, Thomas Coldefy was designated visiting professor at the Jilin Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering in China, and since 2021 has been teaching Master’s students at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. He holds a degree from the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture de Paris and is a registered architect in France and a member of the American Institute of Architect (AIA).

Each Coldefy Architects project leans on three fundamental values: urbanity, clarity and phenomenology. Practicing sensitive architecture that is connected to nature and open to the landscape, Coldefy & Associés envisions buildings as a desire for tranquility and as opportunities to escape a frenzied pace of living. Projects by Coldefy leave ample interstitial space, which facilitates a free flow and encourages encounters. They place themselves at the borderline between nature – through the context in which they are based – and personal narratives. These buildings thus reflect the life of their inhabitants and users, becoming spaces for living and communicating.

Tropicalia, Rang-du-Fliers – Coldefy Architects

Dean Lah was born in 1971 in Maribor, Slovenia and graduated from the Ljubljana Faculty of Architecture in 1998. In the same year he cofounded the architectural office Enota where he works as partner architect ever since. For his work in Enota he received many architectural awards, his work has been presented on numerous exhibitions and published in professional and broad interest publications all over the world. Dean lectures at architectural schools, conferences and symposiums in Slovenia and abroad. Since 2016 he is teaching at Architectural Department of University of Maribor. With intention to promote the importance of architectural quality, he has been active as the member of several architectural award and architectural competitions juries, member of executive board of Chamber of Architecture and Spatial Planning of Slovenia, member of European Forum for Architectural policies, member of executive board of Architects Association of Ljubljana and some other formal and informal networks and events on architecture.

Over the years Enota has been constantly developing and from its beginnings it has served as creative platform for more than fifty architects. Enota’s team of architects focuses on research driven design of the environment where study of contemporary social organizations and use of new technologies are interwoven to produce innovative and effective solutions. Enota’s solutions are strongly influenced by research, reinterpretation and development of social, organizational and design algorithms that derive from nature. The result is always a strong binding of the buildings with the environment that surrounds them.

Češča Vas Pool Complex, Slovenia – Enota Studio

The tickets for registration are available: click here
Members of the CAA who are under 25 years old are eligible for free registration by using a discount code, which can be requested from the association’s secretariat.

The complete list of speakers:
Martin Gran, Partner Snøhetta, Norway
Ingrid Van Der Heijden, Co-founder CIVIC ARCHITECTS, The Netherlands
Peter Murray, Co-Founder of New London Architecture and Chairman of Temple Bar Trust, UK
Sherif Tarabishy, Associate Partner, Foster+Partners, UK
Armand Paardekooper Overman, Associate Partner, MECANOO, The Netherlands
Thomas Coldefy, Founder Coldefy Architects, France
Dean Lah, Founder ENOTA STUDIO, Slovenia
Raluca Șoaita, Founder TESSERACT Architects, Romania
Alkis Dikaios, President Cyprus Architects Association, Cyprus
Constantinos Constanti, President Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK), Cyprus
Pavlos Philippou, Director J+A Philippou, Cyprus
Elena Parouti, Co-Founder Epitessera Architects, Cyprus
Elina Kritikou, Co-Founder EKKY Studio Architects, Cyprus
Kenzo Yamashita, Co-Founder EKKY Studio Architects, Cyprus
Eraclis Papachristou, Founder Eraclis Papachristou Architects, Cyprus
Christos Christodoulou, Founder SIMPRAXIS, Cyprus
Andreas Vardas, Founder VARDASTUDIO, Cyprus
Marios Economides, Director MEMA Architects, Cyprus
Markella Menikou, Head of the Department of Architecture University of Nicosia, Cyprus
Charis Solomou, Lecturer, Frederick University, Department of Architecture