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Cyprus with its rich cultural heritage has been the showcase of ornamentation throughout history with a rich variety of materials, details, and narratives. Integrating ornamentation with its body architecture can be seen as one of the storytellers of these narratives through design elements. After the mid-1990s when casinos had been banned in Turkey, five-star casino hotels became one of the main investment areas in North Cyprus. Together with this new building type and new users' expectations with a new understanding of holidays, the 21st century brought the changing use of ornamentation in hotel interiors and, hence, decoration came to the fore more than before. Hotel lobbies welcoming the users to their second homes and introducing the hotels' identities have always been seen as the most important area of hotels by investors, designers, and hotel managers. Sometimes the reception areas were perceived as the living room of the hotel customers where they feel attached culturally, socially, or economically, and sometimes it could be a place where they can feel themselves as one of the characters of ancient history, a king or a queen for a while. Hence, hotel interiors, in general, and hotel lobbies, in particular, acted as a cultural representative, a social status symbol, and a political image of the story told. The aim of this paper is to examine five-star hotel lobbies within the framework of ornamentation through a reading model created with the concepts used by theoreticians. Together with the site visits and visual recordings, the analysis conducted in this paper is based on qualitative data incorporated by a rich theoretical background on ornamentation. The paper tries to highlight the representational value of ornamentation that can help to understand and interpret the spatial transformation of hotel interiors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy Performance Certification (EPC) systems are pivotal in addressing the global energy challenge, particularly in the building sector. This study evaluates the efficacy of the EPC offered by the Simplified Building Energy Model interface designed to indicate compliance with the Cypriot building regulations, widely known as iSBEM-Cy Version 3.4a, by examining a typical residential unit in Cyprus. Data on construction features and electromechanical systems were collected, and actual monthly electricity and oil bills were analyzed to determine the total primary energy consumption. Various factors were considered, including energy efficiency and operational parameters for heating, cooling, lighting, auxiliary systems, and domestic hot water. The building energy performance was simulated using iSBEM-Cy, allowing for comparison with real-world energy consumption. Notable discrepancies were observed, particularly in cooling, with deviations reaching 377.4%. Conversely, domestic hot water consumption exhibited minimal variance at 7%, while heating and lighting showed moderate discrepancies (24.3% and −113.9%, respectively). This study underscores the need for rigorous evaluations to shape effective EPC and provides insights into building energy performance in Mediterranean Cyprus. This research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable construction practices by aligning simulation results with real-world energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]