Casa da Música in Porto stands as one of the greatest builds of the new age, says The Guardian

British newspaper The Guardian picked the 25 greatest builds of the 21st century and Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal, ranks number 7 in the list.

It goes like this: "Looking like a faceted concrete meteorite that crash-landed on the edge of a roundabout in Porto, the Casa da Música by OMA is one of the most spirited cultural buildings of the century. Its cascading aluminium stairs draw you into a world of twisting spatial drama, where a public route spirals up around the central auditorium, offering views through rippling glass walls. It feels intimate and grand in turns, decked out with a punk collage of materials from gold-leafed timber to traditional handpainted Portuguese tiles and surrounded by an undulating piazza that has become a skateboarders' nirvana."

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The 25 best buildings in the world list features, at the top of the list, Tate Modern, in London, by Swiss duo of Herzog & de Meuron, which still stands as one of the world's most breathtaking public buildings of the millennium. Also, the Grand Parc, in Bordeaux, France, by French architects Lacaton & Vassal, which is a model for how thousands of ailing concrete tower blocks around the world could be improved. And the Neues Museum, as well, as a tour de force of restoration, repair and bold new addition. The building was brought back to life by David Chipperfield and Julian Harrap.

Casa da Música, by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, was designed to mark the year the city of Porto was designated European Capital of Culture and it is the first building in Portugal to be exclusively dedicated to music, be it public performances or field of artistic training and creation.

The project was set in motion in 1999 and the building was inaugurated in the spring of 2005, on April 15th.

This is not the fisrt time that Casa da Música is acknowledged as one of the most spectacular concert halls in the world, as in 2014, Emporis (www.emporis.com), the international provider of building data, compiled a selection of the most spectacular concert halls to be found around the world and Casa da Música ranked made it to the top places in the list. "These days concert halls also have remarkable architecture, offering audiences a great show even before they have taken their seats," the report said.

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