Limassol Multimodal Sustainable Transport & Mobility Hub.
Commissioned by Limassol Municipality, the project turns a linear, slightly irregular plot in the parish of Agios Georgios into a multimodal mobility hub. Its main job is Park & Ride: residents and visitors park at the edge of the city and continue to the centre by bus, taxi, shared bicycle or e-scooter. The aim is fewer private cars in the urban core, less congestion and lower emissions, as part of the city’s wider sustainable-mobility strategy.
From the outset we refused to design another hard, anonymous piece of transport infrastructure. The plot was approached as a place of movement and, at the same time, as public space that belongs to the neighbourhood.
The design is built on the idea of flow and transition. Rather than a static car park, the hub is treated as a dynamic field in which different speeds and modes of travel coexist. A single movement spine runs the length of the plot. Along it sit the parking rows, the bus and taxi drop-off zones, micromobility docks and the services that support the user.
Hard and soft landscape are set in dialogue. The built surfaces follow a clear, repetitive geometry that makes the hub legible at a glance; the green zones are shaped more freely, forming islands of shade and rest. Planting is not decoration here — it organises the space and guides orientation.
The project carries two equal programmes. One is the transport interchange: shaded bus shelters with real-time information, taxi bays, shared bicycles and e-scooters, and electric-vehicle charging. The other is an urban park: a shaded central square with seating, a mobile café, W.C. and Wi-Fi; a playground of natural materials and timber play equipment; an outdoor gym; and shaded walking routes.
The space is meant to work just as well for someone who never uses the Park & Ride — a family visiting the playground, a resident on an evening walk, a passenger waiting for the bus in the shade. The central square is the point where these flows meet: the entrance, the place of arrival, and the hinge between the stops, the parking, the playground and the park.
The design began from a real site, not a blank sheet. A topographic survey recorded the boundaries, the perimeter roads and the neighbouring developments. Within the plot sat an existing futsal pitch that could not be moved, Water Board (EOA) installations, and an underground water main serving the wider area. The masterplan provided by the client was re-worked during the preliminary design to absorb these conditions: the pitch keeps its own access and autonomy, and no building or heavy construction is placed over the line of the water main.
The plot’s status as Turkish-Cypriot property places strict limits on permanent intervention. We turned this into a design principle: every structure is lightweight, with a steel frame and timber cladding, so the hub can be dismantled or reconfigured in the future without lasting alteration to the ground.
Safety shaped both the spatial and the traffic layout. The large bend beside the playground was redrawn to improve visibility and reduce conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians, and the entrances and exits of the hub and the futsal pitch were redefined. All bus and large-vehicle manoeuvres were verified through AutoTURN swept-path simulation, in collaboration with a specialist transport consultant.
The public road is raised to the level of the pavements and the square and finished in a single continuous paving, creating a shared space. With the visual boundary between road and pavement removed, drivers slow down, and pedestrians and children move safely and comfortably between the parking, the square and the playground.
Planting follows the Cyprus Garden planting guide of the Department of Forests and the road-network standards of the Town Planning Department: native, drought-resistant species with minimal irrigation needs — carob, terebinth, mastic, kermes oak, sophora, Judas tree, callistemon and fruitless mulberry. Tree rows shade the parking and the walking routes, cool the microclimate and act as green filters towards the neighbouring properties.
The material palette follows the principles of ecological construction. Permeable surfaces replace conventional asphalt: perforated concrete pavers in the parking, compacted earth on the park paths, allowing natural drainage of stormwater. Seating and street furniture are in natural timber, and alternatives to conventional plastic safety flooring for the playground are being explored with the safety and environment committee of ETEK.
The proposal brings four benefits together: traffic relief through Park & Ride; a green transition through electromobility and micromobility; social upgrading through a new square, park, playground and outdoor gym; and sustainable construction through permeable materials, protection of the existing underground networks and the principle of reversibility.
A mobility hub organises the way we move through the city. Designed well, it also improves the way we live in it. It is not only transport infrastructure; it is a piece of the city.
A contemporary mobility hub has to work technically, environmentally and socially as well as architecturally — a study that called for close collaboration between disciplines.