We had to stop in Santa Cruz de Tenerife to have a look at the auditorium which was designed by the same architect as the train station in Liege, Belgium.
"Designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, it is located on the Avenue of the Constitution in the Canarian capital, and next to the Atlantic Ocean in the southern part of Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Construction began in 1997 and was completed in 2003. The auditorium was inaugurated on 26 September of that year in the presence of Felipe de Borbon, Prince of Asturias, and was later visited by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. The building is framed within the tenets of late-modern architecture of the late 20th century" (Source)
And the pools around the auditorium give you an instant holiday feel.
"Castillo de San Juan Bautista also called Black Castle (Castillo Negro), was the second most important fort in the defense of Santa Cruz de Tenerife [...] Its construction was started in 1641 and completed in 1644. It was later rebuilt in 1765 with the addition of a cylindrical tower facing the sea. It served as a military fort until 1924. It was converted to a military museum in 1948" (Source)
Famous singers from of all times are painted across the docks
Super cool architecture i must say
Some facts (Source):
- Beside the dramatic wing, another Calatrava signature element is a mosaic of trencadis, or broken white cermaics, which cover the structure's entire skin. The 194,000 sq.ft (18,000 sq.m.) of trencadis were brought in from Valencia, Spain.
- The overhanging wing was prefabricated in Seville and shipped to the island in 17 pieces, the largest weighing 60 tons (54,000 kilograms).
- The wing was designed to be supported on only five points.
- ​Geometrically, the roof is constructed from two intersecting cone segments. By contrast, the symmetrical inner shell of the concert hall, which is 50 meters high, is a rotational body, generated by rotating a curve to describe an ellipse. A wedge of approximately 15 degrees has been removed from the center of this body so that its two segments (for acoustical reasons 60 cm thick) form a pronounced ridge. At its uppermost point it supports the sweep of the roof. The body of the auditorium thus contrasts with the smooth curves of the flanking tangential shells, whose exterior surfaces are decorated in coloured broken tile.
- Beside the dramatic wing, another Calatrava signature element is a mosaic of trencadis, or broken white cermaics, which cover the structure's entire skin. The 194,000 sq.ft (18,000 sq.m.) of trencadis were brought in from Valencia, Spain.
- The overhanging wing was prefabricated in Seville and shipped to the island in 17 pieces, the largest weighing 60 tons (54,000 kilograms).
- The wing was designed to be supported on only five points.
- ​Geometrically, the roof is constructed from two intersecting cone segments. By contrast, the symmetrical inner shell of the concert hall, which is 50 meters high, is a rotational body, generated by rotating a curve to describe an ellipse. A wedge of approximately 15 degrees has been removed from the center of this body so that its two segments (for acoustical reasons 60 cm thick) form a pronounced ridge. At its uppermost point it supports the sweep of the roof. The body of the auditorium thus contrasts with the smooth curves of the flanking tangential shells, whose exterior surfaces are decorated in coloured broken tile.
I hope this made you want to check it out! Enjoy your travels :)
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