The Palace of Arts Reina Sofia is part of the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (in Valencian) is the opera house in Valencia, and home of the Orchestra of Valencia. Designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, Valencia and sculptor and architect architectural complex is part of the City of Arts and Sciences.

It was inaugurated on October 8, 2005. The first opera was interpreted on October 25, 2006, was chosen for the occasion.

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia consists of:

The Main Hall, which contains about 1500 seats divided between the patio and the 4 levels of boxes, is conceived as essentially trading floor, but convertible to stage for ballet and other performing arts.

Master class: up to 400 spectators, is a chamber concert hall or conference room.

Auditorium, with seating for 1500 people. It is a spectacular venue for many events. From classical music concerts to political rallies. Sadly its inauguration has been suffering from serious problems that cause soundproofing exterior noise transferred substantially cover the building and audible during performances.

Chamber Theatre - Exhibition Hall: This is a building for Applied Arts, which is located right next to the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, which is independent of this. It has a capacity of 400 spectators.

The exterior of the palace

Architecture

The main building of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia poses with two aims: to build an audience multiple and configure an urban landmark that, in turn, is implemented in an urban area as a dynamic and consolidated the place.

The innovative architecture of this building of 37,000 square meters and a height of more than 70 meters which houses four different auditoriums for opera, theater and music, surprises with its multiplicity of environments. It features cantilevered platforms at different heights with walkways and vegetation, which is accessed by panoramic lifts and stairs located inside metal housings on both sides of the building.

The overall shape of the building is lenticular develop under a jacket or metal pen, supported by two supports, one at its western end and an intermediate area being completely covered east of the cantilever. The best material is the white concrete as part of the large structural supports of the building while the "trencadis" is the second most used material that lines the spectacular "shell" of Palau.

The cover is the most representative of the whole, since in addition to its structural and geometric rigor, contains a great deal of expressiveness and intention that makes plastic transcend the artistic nature of the activities from inside to outside.

The cover or "pen" is the most spectacular structural elements with 230 meters long and more than 70 m. high while the two "shells" which hug the building exterior, are constructed of rolled steel with an approximate weight of 3,000 tons. coated on the outside coated ceremonial (trencadis). Maximum dimensions of the building envelope, taking into account the ways that shape curves are 163 m. long and 87 m. in width.