The Cuidad de las Artes y la Ciencias (city
of arts and sciences), forms part of "Europe's largest urban culture
and leisure centre". It and the rest of the leisure facilities
including a park, planetarium, oceanarium amongst others can be found
in the new part of the City. In Valencia both the old and new can be
found living together in perfect harmony.
The planetarium and science museum that both
make extensive use of laminated glass to achieve "a challenging
and audacious architectural assembly", in the words of architect
Santiago Calatrava, also of Valencia.
The planetarium globe, which houses a viewing
theatre, is roofed over by an elliptical shell structure of glass and
aluminum with sections that can open to expose the dome which looks
like the pupil of an eye.
It was thanks to the magnificent designs
created in Valencia that Calatrava was asked to play the important role
of designing all of the Olympic stadiums in the Athens 2004 games, with
astounding results.
