Since 2005, the monolithic concrete cube of the city concert house, Casa da Musica, has stood on the edge of the Rotunda da Boavista in Porto. The building, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ellen Van Loon of the Rotterdam practice OMA, was commissioned by the city on the occasion of the year of the city of culture in 2001 and then opened after four years in construction. In a surface area of around 22,000 square metres, it accommodates two concert halls with modern equipment with 1,200 and 350 seats, as well as rehearsal rooms, recording studios, a roof terrace and space for 600 vehicles. Instead of embedding it into the heterogeneous cityscape around it, the existing contrasts were stressed even more strongly, and light- coloured, exposed concrete encounters roughly cut window fronts. A strik

Join for free to read