School of Arts, Thessaloniki, Greece Part 2 Project 2004 Soutana Kosma University of Huddersfield | UK The building I have designed is a School of Arts for Thessaloniki, the second largest city of Greece. The site is located in the less developed Western Neighbourhoods of the city and creates an opportunity to continue the regeneration of the area that started with the conversion and extension of an adjacent nineteenth century listed monastery to create a new Cultural Centre to celebrate the city’s election as Cultural Capital of Europe, in 1996.The so-called Moni Lazariston is probably the only building of outstanding architectural and historical interest in the area and, because of its related use to my proposed development, my primary aim was to link the two complexes, to enhance each other and to create a ‘cultural park’.A weakness of the site was its restricted pedestrian and vehicular access, which I was able to overcome by opening-up a currently dead-end street and by extending the southern boundary to incorporate previously derelict land.The strength of the site was its potential to bring ‘light’ into the Moni Lazariston complex, which is presently hidden behind other buildings, and the design of the new Arts School allows previously unseen views of the monastery from the main road to the south.Another restriction to the development that influenced early design decisions was a line of ‘listed’ cypress trees on the western boundary of the site, dating back to the foundation of the monastery, which had to be retained, and which formed the catalyst for the final landscape design. The School of Arts in Thessaloniki, Greece by Soultana Kosma is sophisticated in its resolution of contextual, topographical, and programmatic issues. The architectural promenade around the perimeter of the ordering amphitheatre at the project’s heart, stimulates the user with the curvaceous and compositional use of tectonically informed fluid forms. Tania has been prolific in the means of exploration of ideas, demonstrating a intuitive conviction and informed pursuit of this comprehensively resolved project.