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Porto's New House of Music: Casa da MusicaWalk uphill from this Atlantic city's medieval quayside, past the octagonal baroque tower of the 18th-century Clerigos church and the fabulously ornate 19th-century Bolsa palace, and you'll encounter a futuristic spectacle.
The brash modernity of Porto's new Casa da Musica - House of Music - concert hall is outlandish, even bizarre, in a city that dates to pre-Roman times and cherishes its centuries-old monuments.
Designed by acclaimed Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, the recently opened Casa da Musica is public architecture at its most daring.
It is shoehorned into a cramped city whose layout captures the busy muddle of Porto's prosperous 19th-century trade in port wine and textiles.
Flagrantly, defiantly modern, the Casa da Musica sits on an apron of tan-colored stone like a cut gem held up for public view.
From a narrow base, it sprouts out diagonally, suggesting a chiseled block of white cement.
Discreet, nighttime lighting embellishes its space-age quality amid the mundane traffic jams.
As with I.M. Pei's glass pyramid over the entrance of the Louvre in Paris, or Frank Gehry's titanium-clad Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, locals feared the unconventional project would jar with, and maybe demean, the charm of its historic surroundings.
But Koolhaas has been mindful of local
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8/9/2005 | Viewed 12,079 time(s)
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