The main goal while designing this proposal was to create a modern and extroverted educational complex, which, by combining high aesthetics with functionality, will fit into its environment and will be a landmark for the city of Florina. The main axis of our thinking is that the new School of Fine Arts will operate as an open laboratory, a living organization, a carrier of culture, which is attributed to the University of Western Macedonia but also to the city itself. Respecting both the conceptual and functional specificities of a school of fine arts, we designed a flexible building framework that prioritizes experiential learning and promotes constructive interaction.

Our central architectural concept is that of an open laboratory that will promote Art and allow interaction between students/professors/administrative employees and the public. In this open system, the architecture itself serves as an open framework, respecting the needs of production and development of fine arts. We are therefore talking about an industrial building, characterized by large openings, a free floor plan and a gradation of levels according to their function.

At a synthetic level, our proposal is located north of the plot, at the height of the pre-existing building to the west, creating a fixed boundary of the university facilities to the North, while opening towards the South and the existing buildings, forming an outdoor green space in between. More specifically, taking as a basis the traditional architecture of the city of Florina, the creation of a sloping roof is preferred, under which all the activity of the open laboratory takes place. Morphologically, the architectural composition is developed based on a dynamic elongated gesture and follows the principle of dividing the space into two main wings based on their function.

This choice allows for the appropriate configuration of the teaching and administrative spaces as well as the laboratory and auxiliary spaces of the School of Fine Arts in such a way that the two communicate while maintaining their particularity. Both sectors are organized in levels, depending on the slope of the roof, so as to ensure the diffusion of light in the building and visual contact between them. The dialogue between the two functional zones is achieved by creating a central axis of movement that runs horizontally through the building. In correspondence with the gaps between the existing buildings of the University, two covered atriums are also being created in the south wing of the new building to serve the needs of expanding the laboratory spaces.