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The Palmscape Hotel has everything to ensure the most relaxing of holidays: sea-side views, an infinity pool, a meze restaurant, and direct access to the beach. Or so it seems...
The Future Is in the Past is an allegorical exploration of narrative-driven architecture, virtual world building, and the reinterpretation of history to shape our future. The narrative is led by the oral stories of Cypriot displaced people who in July of 1974 were forced to move away from their hometown only accessing it through their mind and memory. The architectural intention manifests itself as a resort, located in the ghost town of Varosa in Cyprus.
The design and materiality of the spaces are informed by the metaphors they carry and the actors in Cypriot history they represent.
As an allegory of the displaced person’s mind, the Palmscape Hotel exists as a projection, haunted by the trauma of war. It serves as a reminder that history is a construction, urging the audience to embrace alternative readings and break away from a linear understanding of the past to shape a progressive future.
The film (and the architecture) is broken down to two parts, the front of house and the back of house. Throughout the film space becomes interchangeable with time, where the movement through the spaces signifies the movement through time.
As an allegorical device, the hotel is broken up into characters, each of its spaces representing a different actor in Cypriot history.
The project began with a series of virtual reality investigations that investigated the multi-faceted leisure scape of Cyprus.
As an allegory of the displaced person’s mind, the Palmscape Hotel is not designed to be experienced physically, but is rather a projection, a hope, a dream – plagued and corrupted by the trauma of war.
The narrative of the film unfolds via a letter to an estranged lover – Eleni. While Eleni is seen as a woman he longs to be with, her name, and the mythos behind it allow her to be interpreted as the town of Varosha, brutally taken during the war.