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Location: Valencia, Spain, 1998-2001 

 

“As the site is close to the sea, and Valencia is so dry, I decided to make water a major element for the whole site using it as a mirror for the architecture.”--Santiago Calatrava

 

The City of Arts and Sciences, developed by Santiago Calatrava, is a large-scale urban recreation center for culture and science.

Set in the old dried-up river bed of the Turia, midway between the old city of Valencia and the coastal district of Nazaret, the City of Arts and Sciences covers an area of 350,000 square meters.

Following a disastrous flood in 1957, the river was diverted along a canal to the south of the city, and the dried-out riverbed planted as a 7-kilometer long promenade through the center of the city.

L'Hemisfèric (Planetarium) was the first element to be opened to the public in April 1998. The Science Museum Principe Felipe opened in 2000, L'Umbracle (Parking Structure) opened in 2001, the Palacio de las Artes, opened in 2003. Calatrava's use of pure white concrete and Gaudiesque fragments of shattered tiles, an important Valencian industry, tie all the structures together as a whole.

The two principle buildings, the L'Hemisfèric and the The Science Museum Principe Felipe, are organized around a raised promenade running from the base of the Palacio de las Artes along the defining, longitudinal axis of the site, and offering views out towards the sea.

 

The Science Museum is a spatial tour de force, like the grand exhibition pavilions of the past, it is a longitudinal building, resembling a prehistoric-skeleton, created from the modular development of transverse sections that repeat along the length of the site.

The white concrete supporting framework of the south facade is filled with glass; the north facade is a continuous glass-and-steel curtain along the building's full length.

The symmetrical ends of the building are braced firmly by triangulated structures which also mark the entrances.

The 40-meter high north hall has the proportions of a soaring Gothic cathedral nave with flying ribs and a waving glass wall running the full length of the building. Five linearly organized concrete "trees" branch out to support the connection line between roof and facade on a scale that permits the integration of service cores and lifts.