L'Auditori is a modern building of 42,000 square metres designed by the architect Rafael Moneo

Rafael Moneo

José Rafael Moneo Vallés is a Spanish architect. He was born in Tudela, Spain, and won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996. He studied at the ETSAM, Technical University of Madrid from which he received his architectural degree in 1961. From 1958 to 1961 he worked in the office in Madrid...

, opened on 22 March 1999, in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.
It is in the centre of the new pole of urban development of Plaça de les Glòries

Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, Barcelona

Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes , most often shortened to Glòries, is a large square in Barcelona, first designed by Ildefons Cerdà to serve as the city centre in his original urban plan , but nowadays relegated to quite a secondary position...

, which brings together the three widest and longest avenues in the city (Diagonal, Gran Via and Meridiana) near the old centre of the city, its ‘Avenue’, next to the National Theatre, Glòries junction, the opening of the Diagonal on to the sea, district 22 and the Forum area.

The building combines sober external modernity with Sala 1 Pau Casals for 2,200 spectators, Sala 2 Oriol Martorell, with 600 places and Sala 3 Tete Montoliu with 400 places. In the central access atrium, a monumental cubic glass light has been built in the shape of an impluvium, decorated with sketched paintings by Pablo Palazuelo

Pablo Palazuelo

Pablo Palazuelo was a Spanish painter and sculptor.- Work and Biography :Pablo Palazuelo was born in Madrid in 1916. In 1933 he studied architecture at the School of Arts and Crafts at Oxford University. Upon returning to Madrid in 1939, he began to devote all of his time to painting...

. The acoustics of the halls has been carefully studied within the project by the specialised engineer Higini Arau.

In the same musical complex, there are the centres of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona

Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona

The Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Barcelona, Spain.-History:In addition to the Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu, founded in 1847 and devoted to opera and ballet, Barcelona has had several symphonic orchestras since 1888...

, the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya

Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya

The Catalonia College of Music is a music school in Barcelona, CataloniaThe School is located in Barcelona at L'Auditori, a performing arts center inaugurated in 1999 which also houses three concert halls and is designated as the site of a future museum of musical instruments...

 and the Museu de la Música. This makes the Auditori a focus of musical life in the city in the different fields of divulgation, teaching and research.

External links

• Webpage of the l'Auditori