Valencia: Architecture, Water and Light

Vista editorial de la Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències de Valencia con agua y arquitectura blanca

Valencia: Architecture, Water and Light

At Valencia’s Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, white curves rise beside pools of blue-green water. Glass gathers the sky; reflections extend the buildings beyond their edges.

This contemporary cultural complex gives the city a distinctive silhouette. Its character comes as much from the spaces between the structures as from the architecture itself: open water, broad walkways and Mediterranean light.

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía reflejado en el agua, Valencia

Where the Turia once flowed

The complex occupies part of the former River Turia bed. After the devastating flood of 1957, the river was diverted south of Valencia; its old course gradually became gardens and public space.

Santiago Calatrava designed landmarks including the Hemisfèric and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, the opera house pictured here. Elsewhere in the complex, Félix Candela’s distinctive roofs belong to the Oceanogràfic.

Macarena junto al Hemisfèric y los estanques de la Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències

An eye reflected in water

Opened in 1998, the Hemisfèric was the first building in the City of Arts and Sciences to welcome the public. Calatrava conceived its form as a vast human eye.

The surrounding water completes the image through reflection. As daylight shifts, the same white surfaces turn cool, bright or warm; ripples break their symmetry. Walking around the pools becomes a way of watching architecture change.

Cuaderno y bolso de fibras naturales sobre mosaico cerámico junto al agua

Looking closely at the surface

A ceramic edge beside the water brings the monumental setting back to the scale of a hand, a notebook or a woven bag.

For Macarena de Alba, Valencia suggests relationships to carry into another creative language: curved lines beside structure, cream against blue, texture beside reflection. Inspiration begins with noticing how materials meet the light.