Saturday, February 22, 2014

SANTIAGO CALATRAVA'S VALENCIA

VALENCIA - MAY 2011
"JARDIN DEL TURIA - In October 1957, the Turia River flooded Valencia and more than four hundred 400 people died. The city decided that the river could no longer go through the middle of town and created the park, which is the largest urban park in Spain"
"PALAU DE LA MUSICA" - The Valencia Concert Hall, situated on the old bed of the river Turia, was constructed in 1987. It is one of the buildings of the vanguard architecture movement in the city amd has a glass enclosure that looks out on the gardens and allows one to watch the fountains that have been designed to spout to the beat of the music heard from the Palau"
"PALAU DE LES ARTS REINA SOFIA - Queen Sofía Palace of the Arts, the opera house and cultural centre, opened on October 8, 2005. Designed by the Valencia-born architect Santiago Calatrava, it is 75m high, which makes it the tallest opera house in the world"
"PALAU DE LES ARTS - Inside the 14 stories above ground and the three stories below ground, four auditoriums may be found: The Main Hall (seats 1,700 people), the Auditorium (seats 1,500 people), the Aula Magistral (seats 400 people) and the Martí i Soler Theatre (also seats 400)"
"QUEEN SOFIA PALACE OF ARTS" - An amazing building"
"PALAU DE LES ARTS AND BRIDGES - The roads come closer to the building..."
"HEMISPHERIC - An Imax Cinema, Planetarium and Laserium, it resembles a giant eye, known as the "eye of knowledge". It was the first building of the city of arts and sciences to be completed in 1998"
"HEMISPHRERIC - Aka the Apple mouse..."
"AMIDST THE CALATRAVAS"
"PRINCE FILIPE SCIENCE MUSEUM"
"THE SCIENCE MUSEUM"
"AGORA - A multifunctional space eighty meters tall and occupying more than 5000 sq metres. It may seat more than 6000 people"
"AGORA AND OCEANOGRAFIC - The largest marine park in Europe, with a surface of 111,000 square metres and a water capacity of 42,000,000 litres"
"THE ALHAMBRA TOWERS BY CRISTÓBAL GABARRÓN"

6 comments:

Trotter said...

Hi Folks! Here we are again, this time very close in nearby Valencia... A very short Saturday trip in May 2011.
There will be two posts on it. This first pays tribute to one of the most well known sons of Valencia: the architect Santiago Calatrava! Enjoy...

Dina said...

Shalom Trotter, I didn't know Valencia had so many spectacular places.
And Calatrava really put his whole heart into works for his hometown.

Thérèse said...

The concert hall looks like a huge helmet to me... :-)

P.N. Subramanian said...

Queen Sofia's palace is amazing!

Oman said...

Hi there, nice to be back here again and just like old times, your features never fail to impress me. I love these building specially the helmet-looking ones. :)

Trotter said...

Heartbreaking update: My father passed away at the age of 96 on March 29, 2014. Another reason why I’ve been away from the blogosphere lately...