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Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
NICOSIA – It sounds like a good Star Trek episode and the set is already there, in real life, a new otherworldly space observatory on a hill in Cyprus built to entice visitors to something other than the beach and get a good look at what’s out there.
In a review, Reuters said the observatory in Agridia, high in the Troodos mountains in the center of the island on the Greek-Cypriot side, was built with 1.77 million euros ($1.92 million) in public funding and opened in May.
It was designed by science fiction enthusiasts who are architects and siblings Elena, Nicodemos and Cassandra Tsolakis, who said it wasn’t designed to look like a spaceship although Captain Kirk and Scotty would feel at home there.
“Yes, from some angles the building might look like a spaceship. Was that the intention? No, but that is what came out,” said Elena of the design that has reflective cladding and an angular structure meshing with the terrain and skies.
“Part of our brief and our main objective was to create an iconic building for the area and we think that has been achieved,” said Nicodemos.
The observatory, part of the European Union-backed Geostars project to regenerate isolated rural areas in parts of Cyprus and Greece, is equipped with a 20-inch reflective telescope, the biggest on the island, under a rotating 5.6 meter (18.37 feet) wide dome and a solar telescope beneath a hydraulic roof.
There’s even what looks like a launching and landing pad in case the Enterprise wants to bop in and it adds to the sci-fi effect that’s sure to lure Trekkies and fans who want to go where no man – or human – has gone before.
Elena Tsolakis, recently named by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as one of the 100 most influential female architects in the world, said each public space should tell a story and offer visitors a unique experience.
“What we are trying to replicate is that feeling of wonder, especially for children, to have that sense of wonder and curiosity and yearning to know more about the world beyond the everyday existence that we have,” she told the news agency.
The report noted that a jutting protrusion which can be used as an astromarina for mobile telescopes looks like it is emerging from the earth; part of the construction is embedded in the mountain but all eyes will be on the skies. Out there.
