The Opera House

Thanks to Santiago Calatrava, Santa Cruz de Tenerife is now home to an shockingly picturesque opera house. Located on nearly six acres next to the ocean, the building seems to rise up swallow itself like a giant wave. Beneath the high tide you will discover two auditoriums, totaling 73,000 SF with a capacity of over 2000. The auditorium, Calatrava's first performing arts building will host a year-round program of orchestral and operatic events attracting visitors into the city.

The signature component - the wing was prefabricated and shipped to the island in more than a dozen pieces the largest of which weight some 60 tons. A special crane had to be shipped in to lift the pieces into place. Several critiques of the work have noted the huge canopy has no practical purpose other than being purely sculptural and as such the work is egotistical in nature.

The giant wave sweeps upward in a curve to a height of 197 feet. As it rises, pointing toward the auditorium's plaza and the ocean beyond, the wave narrows and thins to a spear-shaped tip, 320 feet from the base of its arc.Inside the main auditorium and chamber music hall, the primary finishes are plaster. On the exterior, much of the concrete is inlaid with broken ceramic tiles-a traditional material in Spain-to create a gently polished surface.

The smaller hall has seating for around 400; the larger symphonic hall seats just over 1600. Acoustically, the two halls were designed with different performances and situations in mind. Surface materials include solid pressed wood covered with fiberglass.

The fenestration is composed of operable openings, exposing either the fiberglass material or the wood, depending on the acoustical requirements of the specific event.

"As someone who loves music almost as much as architecture," Santiago Calatrava states, "I feel very fortunate to have been chosen to design the Tenerife Auditorium, the first building I have completed that is dedicated to musical performance "

The key to a project's success always lies in the determination of the client to make something special, and in the community's enthusiasm for the purpose of the building. In this case, it was through popular support for the excellent programs of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, and through the far-sighted vision of the client, the Tenerife Town Council, that we were able to sustain this project over a decade of design and construction, and to create the building we had always hoped to achieve."