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Discover Palau de les Arts | Know the Palau

Know the Palau

SPACES

Surrounded by a green landscaped area of 87,000 square metres and expanses of water of over 10,000 square metres with surrounding walkways, the Palau de les Arts has 4 main halls:

  • The Main Hall, which can hold over 1,400 people, has been conceived essentially as an operatic venue but can also be converted into a stage for ballet and other scenic arts.
  • The Master Classroom. It has a seating capacity of 400 and is located in the east side of the building; it has been specially designed for live shows by small music groups.
  • Auditorium, with a seating capacity of over 1,400
  • The Martín y Soler Theatre. Located in the Applied Arts building adjacent to the Palau, with a seating capacity of 400, it is near where the Improvement Academy will be placed.

The building also includes installations for teaching activities and other events closely related to artistic and cultural spheres.

ARCHITECTURE

The innovative architecture of this building of 37,000 square metres with a height of over 70 metres, which holds four auditoriums for different opera, theatre, and music shows, has a surprising multiplicity of ambiances. It has projecting platforms at various heights with walkways and vegetation that can be reached by panoramic lifts and stairways located inside the metallic frames standing on both sides of the building.


The building as a whole is lenticular in shape and has been developed under a large additional roof or metallic feather on two supports, one on the end in the western area and another intermediate one that leaves the eastern area of the roof as a projection. The material used par excellence is the white concrete that is part of the major structural supports of the building, while trencadis is the second commonest material used to cover the spectacular "shells" of the Palau.


The roof is the most representative part of the whole, since as well as its structural and geometric rigour it has a great deal of expressiveness and a plastic intention that transcends the artistic nature of the activities from the interior towards the exterior.


The roof or "feather" is the most spectacular structural element and is 230 metres long and more than 70 m high, The two "shells" that embrace the building on the outside are of laminated steel and weigh some 3,000 tons; they have a ceramic covering on the outside (trencadis). The maximum outer dimensions of the building, taking into account its curved shapes, are 163 m long and 87 m wide.