Casa da Musica Porto is a major concert hall space in Porto, Portugal which houses the cultural institution of the same name with its three orchestras Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Orquestra Barroca and Remix Ensemble. It was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas with Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Arup-AFA, and was built as part of Porto’s project for European Culture Capital in 2001 but was only finished in the first half of 2005 and immediately became an icon in the city.
The Casa da Musica Porto Building engineers were Arup (London) together with Afassociados (Porto). Inside Outside (Petra Blaisse) designed the large 13 curtains, ranging from 22mx15m to 65mx8m, and the gold leaf wood grain pattern on the large auditorium. Although the opening day concert took place on the April 14 with Cla and Lou Reed, the building was inaugurated on April 15, 2005 by the Portuguese president. The Prime-minister and many other notable politicians and Porto society were present for the concert by the Orquestra Nacional do Porto.
