Auditorio de Tenerife

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Cultural spaces · Subcategory: Theaters · Year: 2003 · Authors: Santiago Calatrava Valls

Since the 1980s, building an auditorium in the city was an idea pursued by the authorities. Several locations were studied for this purpose, but after the project was awarded to engineer and architect Santiago Calatrava in 1993, the technician proposed building it by the sea, in the new urban expansion area of that time, next to the Castillo de San Juan, in a place where it would become an iconic and referential landmark of the city, following the characteristic trends of late 20th-century global architecture.

The initial programme was to create a building for musical and operatic performances, but it also had to be capable of hosting other functions such as dance, theatre, and even exhibitions and congresses. The flexibility required by this versatile programme distances the result from any specific typology, which was cleverly exploited by Calatrava to compose a sculptural figure with strong iconographic and symbolic charge.

The final result of the project corresponds to the usual language of the Valencian technician who, through daring and sculptural forms, mixes structural tension with technical expressiveness. On the exterior, the large shell or maritime wave stands out, rising above the symphony hall, which is situated on a plinth that serves both as a public square and as a space integrating the building's administrative services. Inside, a huge lobby provides access to two halls: the main one under a curved cone with a capacity of 1,716 people, and the smaller chamber hall, with a capacity of 400 attendees.

During its construction period (1996-2003), delays, technical problems, and budget variations caused strong controversies. However, at that time, the work became a fundamental factor in putting the city on the map, not only for its cultural functionality but also as a tourist and commercial attraction. The Auditorio de Tenerife directly fits into the late 20th-century trend of providing cities with a work of international prestige that reflected the most spectacular architecture of the moment.

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