Like the sea, culture is a gateway to the outside world and adventure - a path to something wonderful. The design of Karlskrona's new school of culture aims to meet and activate the city, to allow the journey and adventure of culture to take place in the new and varied urban spaces that the new buildings create.

Karlskrona's cultural school is a new layer in the city's fabric, but the secret kinship with the sea and shipping can still be sensed. Visitors are welcomed in through the old Dolphin Gate, where wild, imaginatively scaled dolphins show the way to a strange world.

The cultural school is integrated into the existing urban structure of Kalvhagen and forms an ensemble together with Palanderska gården and the office building. The building is designed as four clearly readable volumes with a fifth "space" between them. The four volumes vary in scale, height and width depending on their respective program content and relate to their specific location on the site. The volumes are highest to the west, towards Trossö, and step down to the east to meet Palanderska gården and the office building.

The main entrance is located to the east, centered in the axis towards the Palanderska courtyard and the space formed inside the Dolphin Gate becomes the School of Culture's courtyard and unifying front. Here there are opportunities for rest and play, but also teaching and events. Towards Thore Christoffersongatan there is a secondary entrance for staff and loading.

Towards the south, where the Spårgatan street opens out from the west, a square is created in the city. Here, the base of the building becomes a staircase where you can sit down in the sun. The square also has bicycle parking, a pick-up and drop-off function and stormwater management.