The City of Arts and Sciences (, ) is a cultural and architectural complex in the city of

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is the most important modern tourist destination in the city of Valencia and one of the 12 Treasures of Spain. The City of Arts and Sciences is situated at the southeast end of the former riverbed of the river Turia, which was drained and rerouted after a catastrophic flood in 1957. The old riverbed was turned into a picturesque sunken park. Designed by

Santiago Calatrava Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is a Spaniards, Spanish-Swiss people, Swiss architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, particularly known for his bridges supported by single leaning pylons, and his railway stations, stad ...

and Félix Candela, the project began the first stages of construction in July 1996, and was inaugurated on 16 April 1998 with the opening of L'Hemisfèric. The last major component of the City of Arts and Sciences, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, was inaugurated on 9 October 2005, Valencian Community Day. The most recent building in the complex, L'Àgora, was opened in 2009. Originally budgeted at €300 million in 1991 for three structures, additional structures were added, contributing to a three-fold increase from that initial expected cost.

Buildings and structures

The complex is made up of the following buildings and structures, presented in the order of their inauguration: *L'Hemisfèric (1998) – an

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

Cinema,

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

and laserium. The building is meant to resemble a giant eye, and has an approximate surface of . The Hemisfèric, also known as the planetarium or the "eye of knowledge", is the centerpiece of the City of Arts and Sciences. It was the first building completed in 1998. Its design resembles an eyelid that opens to access the surrounding water pool. The bottom of the pool is glass, creating the illusion of the eye as a whole. This planetarium is a half-sphere in a concrete structure long and wide. The shutter is built of elongated aluminum awnings that fold upward collectively to form a

brise soleil Brise, Brisé or Briše may refer to: * Brisé (dance), a type of jump in ballet * "Brisé" (song), Maître Gims 2015 *Brisé (music), Style brisé (French: "broken style"), Baroque music Places * Briše, Kamnik, Slovenia * Briše pri Polhovem G ...

roof that opens along the curved axis of the eye. It opens to reveal the dome, the "iris" of the eye, which is the planetarium or Ominax theater. The structure is divided in half by a set of stairs that descend into the vaulted concrete lobby. The underground spaces are illuminated with the use of translucent glass panels within the walking path. The transparent roof is supported by concrete arches that connect to the sunken gallery. There is a remarkable echo in the building and if two people stand at the two opposite pillars inside of the eye they can speak with each other. * Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (2000) – an interactive museum of science that resembles the skeleton of a whale. It occupies around on three floors. Much of the ground floor is taken up by a basketball court sponsored by a local team and various companies. The building has three floors, of which is used for exhibitions. The first floor has a view of the Turia Garden that surrounds it, which is over 13,500 square meters of water. The second floor hosts "The Legacy of Science" exhibition by researchers Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Severo Ochoa y Jean Dausset. The third floor is known as the "Chromosome Forest" and shows the sequencing of human DNA. Also on this floor are the "Zero Gravity," "Space Academy" and "Marvel Superheroes" exhibitions. The building's architecture is known for its geometry, structure, use of materials, and its design around nature. The building is about , of which is exhibition space, making it the largest in Spain. It has of glass, 4,000 panes, of concrete, and 14,000 tons of steel. The building stands long, wide and high. * L'Umbracle (2001) – an open structure enveloping a landscaped walk with plant species indigenous to Valencia (such as rockrose, lentisca,

rosemary ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers. It is a member of the sage family, Lamiaceae. The species is native to the Mediterranean r ...

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...

honeysuckle Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or Vine#Twining vines, twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae. The genus includes 158 species native to northern latitudes in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. Widely kno ...

bougainvillea ''Bougainvillea'' ( , ) is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, and trees belonging to the family, Nyctaginaceae. They are native to Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Argentina. There are between 4 and 22 species in the genus. The i ...

and

palm tree The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially c ...

s). It harbors in its interior The Walk of the Sculptures, an outdoor art gallery with sculptures by contemporary artists (Miquel of Navarre, Francesc Abbot,

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

and others). The ''Umbracle'' is also home to numerous free-standing sculptures surrounded by nature. It was designed as an entrance to the City of Arts and Sciences. It is long and wide, located on the southern side of the complex. It includes 55 fixed arches and 54 floating arches that stand high. The plants displayed were carefully picked to change colour with each season. The garden includes 99 palm trees, 78 small palm trees, and 62 bitter orange trees. There are 42 varieties of shrubs from the Region of Valencia including

cistus ''Cistus'' (from the Greek ''kistos'') is a genus of flowering plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, containing about 20 species (Ellul ''et al.'' 2002). They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean reg ...

es, mastics,

buddleia ''Buddleja'' (; ''Buddleia''; also historically given as ''Buddlea'') is a genus comprising over 140 species of flowering plants endemicity, endemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The generic name bestowed by Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus posthu ...

, pampas grass, and

plumbago ''Plumbago'' is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. Common names include plumbago and leadwort (names which are also shared by the genus '' Ceratostig ...

s. In the garden there are 16 species of ''

Mirabilis jalapa ''Mirabilis jalapa'', the marvel of Peru or four o'clock flower, is the most commonly grown ornamental species of ''Mirabilis'' plant, and is available in a range of colors. ''Mirabilis'' in Latin means wonderful and Jalapa (or Xalapa) is the st ...

'', or the four-o'clock flower ("beauty of the night"). Honeysuckle and hanging bougainvillea are two of the 450 climbing plants in ''L'Umbracle''. There also are 5,500 ground cover plants such as lotus, agatea, Spanish flags, and fig-marigolds. There are over a hundred aromatic plants including rosemary and lavender. *

L'Oceanogràfic L'Oceanogràfic (, , 'The Oceanographic') is an oceanarium situated in the Garden of the Turia to the southeast of the city center of Valencia, Spain, where different marine habitats are represented. It was designed by the architect Félix Cande ...

(2003) – an open-air oceanographic park. It is the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe with and of water. It was built in the shape of a water lily and is the work of architect Félix Candela. Each building represents different aquatic environments including the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, wetlands, temperate and tropical seas, the Antarctic, the Arctic, islands and the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

. This aquarium is a home to over 500 different species including dolphins, belugas, sawfish, jellyfish, starfish, sea urchins, walruses, sea lions, seals, penguins, turtles, sharks and rays. It also houses wetland bird species. * Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (2005) – an

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

and performing arts center dedicated to music and the performing arts. It is surrounded by of landscape and water, as well as of walking area. The Palau de Les Arts has four sections: the main hall, the master hall, the auditorium, and the Martin y Soler theatre. It holds many events such as opera, theatre and music in its auditoriums. Panoramic lifts and stairways connect platforms at different heights on the inside of the metallic frames of the building. The building has a metallic feather outer roof that is 230 meters long and 70 meters high. The building is supported by white concrete. Two laminated steel shells cover the building, weighing over 3,000 tons. These shells are 163 meters wide and 163 meters long. * Montolivet Bridge (2007) - concrete road bridge crossing the dry Turia riverbed that consists of an older straight-roadway northern segment with column piers designed by Fernández Ordóñez (1933–2000) connected with a newer curved-roadway southern segment with white arch point supports designed by Santiago Calatrava, located in between, and complementing his design of, ''Palua de les Arts Reina Sofía'' and ''L'Hemisferic''. * Assut de l'Or Bridge (2008) – a white

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

sustained by a curved pylon with backstayed counterweights, crossing the dry Turia riverbed, connecting the south side with Minorca Street, in between ''El Museu de les Ciències'' and ''L'Agora''. The pylon of the bridge, at high, is the highest point in the city. *

L'Àgora L'Àgora (, ; anglicised "The Agora") is a multifunctional covered space designed by Santiago Calatrava located in the '' Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències'' (City of Arts and Sciences) complex, Valencia, Spain. Design and construction The b ...

(2009) – a covered plaza in which concerts and sporting events (such as the Valencia Open 500) are held. The Agora is a space designed to hold a variety of events such as concerts, performances, exhibitions, conventions, staging of congresses, and international sports meetings. Many important events have been held in this building, including the Freestyle Burn Spanish Cup in 2010 and the Christmas Special Program. * Valencia Towers – part of a Calatrava project (2005) to complete the City of Arts and Sciences with the additional construction, then estimated to take more than two decades to complete, of three sculptural towers of 308, 266 and 220 m tall, which symbolize the cities of Valencia, Alicante and Castellón, respectively. The proposed project has been put on hold.

History

Origins of the project

In 1989, the president of the Valencian Autonomous Government, Joan Lerma, after a visit to the new

Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (, "City of Science and Industry", abbreviated la CSI) or simply CSI is a large science museum in Europe. Located in the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, it is one of the three dozen French Cultural ...

in Paris, and through the general director of planning and studies of the Presidency of the

Generalitat Valenciana The Generalitat Valenciana is the generic name covering the different self-government institutions under which the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia is politically organized. It consists of seven institutions including the ''Corts Valen ...

, José María Bernabé, officially commissioned the scientist Antonio Ten Ros to draft a first proposal for a City of Science and Technology for Valencia. Ten Ros drew up a first draft, entitled "Vilanova, A City of Science for Valencia", which was officially presented to the Generalitat in May 1989. After that, he was formally commissioned in 1990 to direct the creation of a general draft amounting to 92,650,000 pesetas (556,000 euros), to be managed by the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ), shortened to UV, is a public research university in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community. It is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic i ...

. Antonio Ten Ros assembled a team of 56 scientists, museologists and designers including Professor José María López Piñero as responsible for the space "A walk through history". Ten Ros presented the draft in 32 volumes to President Lerma in the Palace of the Generalitat on 21 December 1991. The "City of Science and Communications" was the name that the autonomous government gave to the initiative, and plans included a 370 m high

communications tower Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-m ...

, which would have been the third highest one in the world at that time; a

; and a museum of science. The total price of the works was estimated to be about 25,000 million pesetas. In May 1991, the council approved the transfer of lands. Four months later the project plan with three structures (communications tower, planetarium, and a science museum) was presented, designed by

. The team that had designed the museum did not see eye to eye with the form in which Santiago Calatrava conceived the building, and a couple of changes were made. Preliminary site work began by the end of 1994. The project was not without controversy. The Conservative Popular Party saw in the City of Science a "work of the pharaohs" that would serve only to swell the ego of the

Socialists Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...

, who were the driving forces behind the initiative.

Expanded plan and construction

In 1995, the Popular Party won against the Socialists. However, several successive Popular Party governments continued and expanded the complex far beyond the original Socialist project at an enormous cost, heavily indebting the city. After a change of government in 1996, the planned telecommunication tower was cancelled and replaced by an opera house, which was more expensive, and architect Félix Candela was added to design an oceanographic park, all of which led to underspecified increases in the project budget and to updating the name to ''City of Arts and Sciences''. In July 1996, the original ''Valencia, Ciencia y Comunicaciones'' was officially changed to ''Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, S.A.'' (CACSA). Construction on the City of Arts and Sciences under CACSA began July 1996. When construction started in 1997 on the Palau de les Arts, it was built with the same foundation and the same contract that had been planned for the cancelled communications tower. The revised plan (by Calatrava) exhibited a strong longitudinal axis that defined the backbone tying together all the structures of the complex. It bisected the Opera House, Montolivet Bridge, L'Hemisferic, and extended through the Assut de L'Or Bridge and L'Agora (commissioned later in 2005) to L'Oceanografic (designed by Candela). Parallel to the axis were placed the science museum, L'Umbracle, raised promenades and reflecting pools. Another unifying element was the use of the city’s traditional heritage, viz., the use of ceramic mosaic tiles known as ''“trencadis”'', which was widely used as the exterior layer over the concrete surfaces of many of the buildings/structures and elements of the promenade throughout the complex. Construction continued on the site until the last structure, L'Agora, was completed in 2009. The total cost of the project came in at 1,200 million euros.

Inauguration

In April 1998, the complex opened its doors to the public with L'Hemisfèric. Eleven months later, the President of Valencia, Eduardo Zaplana, inaugurated the Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, although the museum was not yet finished. The museum was opened to the public twenty months later. On 12 December 2002 was the opening of

, the largest aquarium built in Europe. Queen Sofía, on 8 October 2005, inaugurated the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, which became the

of Valencia.

Architects: Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela

was born in Valencia, Spain, on 28 July 1951. He is an architect and engineer also known for his skills in painting and sculpting. He attended the Art Academy in Valencia in the mid-1960s; then he earned a degree in architecture and a postgraduate course in city planning at the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura, studied civil engineering at the Federal Polytechnic University of Zurich, and participated in academic research investigating the foldability of

space frame In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure (Three-dimensional space, 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometry, geometric pattern. Space frames can ...

s. Calatrava's architecture aims to unite structure and movement. Early in his career, Calatrava designed Stadelhofen Station in Zurich. He was recognized for his achievement in creating poetics of movement and integrating public transportation in a natural setting and urban context. Another theme in his work was moving contraptions in his buildings; for example, his dome for the Reichstag Conversion Competition in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

opens and closes like a flower, and the Planetarium in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia opens and closes like eyelids. Félix Candela was born on 27 January 1910 in Madrid, Spain, and died on 7 December 1997. His architectural designs are composed of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

structures distinguished by thin, curved shells. His popularity sprung from his design, in collaboration with Jorge Gonzales Reyna, of the Cosmic Rays Pavilion (1951) in Mexico. He used his signature design of the reinforced concrete roof that varies in thickness from only 5/8 inch to 2 inches. He also built the church of La Virgin Milagrosa in Mexico City and the church of San Vicente de Paul. His designs consisted of warped-shell industrial buildings, thin-shell centenary, and barrel-vaulted factories and warehouses. Candela was also a teacher at Harvard University and the University of Illinois. Felix Candela designed the underwater city

in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, reminiscent of

Antoni Gaudí Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( , ; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalans, Catalan architect and designer from Spain, widely known as the greatest exponent of Catalan ''Modernisme''. Gaudí's works have a style, with most located in Barc ...

's work in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

In popular culture

Parts of the musical number "Style" from the 2007 Indian film '' Sivaji'' were shot at the City of Arts and Sciences. Portions of the area were featured in the 2013 racing game ''

Gran Turismo 6 ''Gran Turismo 6'' is a 2013 sim racing video game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is the sixth main installment and the eleventh overall in the ''Gran Turismo (series), Gran ...

'' as a photo location. Exterior scenes of the futuristic city in the 2015 film ''Tomorrowland'' were filmed around the complex. In 2016 (broadcast in 2017) it was used as a filming location for the British science-fiction television programme ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'', appearing in the second episode of the tenth series, "

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses d ...

". The location was used as the headquarters of the company DELOS in the third season of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction dystopia media franchise that began with the Westworld (film), 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild West, Wild-West-th ...

''. In 2023, it served as part of the planet of Coruscant for the second season of the

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

show '' Andor''. Various exterior shots of the complex were used to depict a conceptual 2039 New York World's Fair for the season finale of '' Cosmos: Possible Worlds'' on

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

. Architectural elements from the site were used as a green screen backdrop for the futuristic 2720 city in the 2020 film '' Bill & Ted Face the Music'' It was also used as the set of the 2020 television adaptation of ''

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hier ...

''. Parts of the shooting for the 2021 TV series '' Intergalactic'' and for the 2025 TV series '' Andor'' are also done in the City of Arts and Sciences. In 2024, MiSaMo, a sub-unit of

K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

girl group

Twice Twice (; Japanese language, Japanese: トゥワイス, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ''Tuwaisu''; commonly stylized in all caps) is a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group is composed of nine members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon ...

, filmed parts of the at the City of Arts and Science.

Economic impact

In 2019 it was reported that the economic impact of the complex is €113 million a year and generated 3,509 jobs.

Gallery

File:Ciudad Ciencias 5x.jpg, Panorama (2007, before Assut de l'Or Bridge and Ágora were built) File:Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias - panoramio (11).jpg, Pont de Montolivet File:Puente Cuidad de las ciencias y las artes en Valencia.jpg, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia - Jan 2007.jpg, The

Opera House An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

at night File:Reflejos en la ciudad de las artes y ciencias, Valencia..JPG, Reflections File:L'Umbracle, Valencia, Spain - Jan 2007.jpg, Interior of L'Umbracle (2007) File:Dune SantiagoCalatrava.jpg, Walkway canopy of L'Umbracle File:Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias - panoramio (15).jpg, Panoramic File:El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe – Bilim ve Uzay Müzesi.jpg, Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe File:Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias - panoramio (10).jpg, City of Arts and Sciences at night File:Ágora, Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia, España, 2014-06-29, DD 58.jpg, Assut de l'Or Bridge, Ágora (2014) File:Àgora 06112010.jpg, L'Àgora 2010 File:L'Oceanogràfic Valencia 2019 4.jpg, L'Oceanogràfic (2019) File:Noche Ciudad Artes Ciencias.jpg, Noche Ciudad Artes Ciencias

Notes

References

*Tzonis, Alexander. Santiago Calatrava: ''The Complete Works''. New York: Rizzoli, 2004. Print. *Jodidio, Philip. Santiago Calatrava. Köln: Taschen, 1998. Print. *Sharp, Dennis. Santiago Calatrava. London: E & FN SPON, 1994. Print.

External links

Official website ''Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències''Official tourism website of Valencia

''Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències'' at Google MapsArchitectural photos by Varlamov at flickrPhoto essay City of Arts and Sciences 2002
{{Authority control Santiago Calatrava structures High-tech architecture Lattice shell structures Convention centers in Spain Modernist architecture in Spain Buildings and structures in Valencia 1998 establishments in Spain Planned communities in Spain Tourist attractions in Valencia Neo-futurist architecture