Casa da Música, Porto

The new concert hall is a conspicuous landmark in an urban renewal area on the Rotunda da Boavista on the edge of the historic centre of Porto which is protected as world cultural heritage. The many-sided thing made of perfect, white concrete has been called "White Crystal" and "Meteorite".

It was established right from the start of planning that the large concert hall with 1,300 seats would follow the principle of the shoe box that in classical form is distinctive in the Vienna Musikvereinssaal, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Boston Symphony Hall. On a higher level and almost at a right angle to it the architect Rem Koolhaas placed the smaller auditorium and surrounded these two basic elements with a shell of white concrete which creates variously shaped spatial areas to the sides and over and above the two halls which accommodate the other functions.

The basic idea of the building was originally developed for a single-family house in Holland, says the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas in his book published in 2005; "Copy and Paste. How to turn a Dutch house into a Portuguese concert hall in under 2 weeks" is the title of the relevant chapter in his bestseller ''Content''.