City of Arts and Sciences

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Project Name: City of Arts and Sciences
Construction year: 1998
Website: www.cac.es
Address: Pont de Monteolivet 1 , VALENCIA - Spain

Architect(s) : Calatrava Santiago (www.calatrava.com)
Project Category: Cultural

Latitude: 39.4566
Longitude: -0.35216

City of Arts and Sciences

The City of Arts and Sciences, developed by Santiago Calatrava, is a large-scale urban recreation center for culture and science which also incorporates L’Oceanogràfic, an underwater city designed by the late Felix Candela.

Location

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. The promenade is crossed by two streamlined new bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Design

Designed almost entirely by Valencia born Santiago Calatrava 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, still under construction, is scheduled to open in 2002. 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.

This impressive architectural ensemble brings new focus to an incoherent and underdeveloped area, while linking and providing a marker for the outer areas of the city.

Contributed by ArchiTeam