Our proposal can be read from a sectional point of view as a building volume in suspension that functions as a roof for an open-air public space on ground level: a covered square, defined by the greenspace to the southeast and to northeast by the road and the sport courts. The suspended volume extends to the edge of the given area to roof the maximum available surface above the square. The grove incline to the southwest transitions gradually, bringing the landscape into the public space and there, in two pillars are situated the spaces of the building program open to the public.
Exhibition and Education, the two main components of the Arts Building’s program, are distinctly recognizable on the ground level, yet function autonomously as much as interactively in the in-between space. Both have independent vertical circulation cores, while on the elevated volume of the roof are wrapped by the common shell of the facade in a single entity. The materiality of the facades of the elevated volume dimly reflects the patterns, the colors and the motion of the tall trees and the sky, in a way that the building itself becomes an abstract reflection of the landscape around it.
On ground level, the covered square acts as the node connecting the natural landscape of the complex to the routes and the entrances of the college. Paths, landscape and light interpenetrate, creating wandering and reposing areas for students, to gather and interact. It is to become a meeting point for school life: an arena functioning as a space for deliberation, exposition, creative criticism, exchange of stimuli and wondering amongst the creative forces of an arts building.
The roof functions as an apparatus: the light is filtered through skylights in the workshops, the lecture halls and the gallery.