Valencia, Spain: America’s Cup Pavillion

Valencia is one of the most well known European cities architecturally, since Santiago Calatrava adorned his birthplace with many of his outlandish buildings. Even Norman Foster has designed one of its buildings and SANAA is making the expansion for the Museum of Modern Art there.

The new jewel in the crown of the city is the America’s Cup Pavilion, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, with b720 Arquitectos. The pavilion houses all activities for the big international sailing event that has Valencia as its home for 2007. The city saw a big opportunity to add another landmark building to its already venerable "collection" and they struck gold.

The building played a major part in Valencia’s securing America’s Cup, as last years winner was Swiss. As Switzerland is landlocked, the winner could choose from four cities. Valencia showed that they wanted to take the race a step further and so they won, and architecture won a lovely building as well. An amazing aspect of it is that from final selection to unveiling it took only 11 months, as the schedule was extremely tight.

Essentially the building acts as an auditorium for spectators: the massive terraces are the most advantageous point to watch the fleet of the state-of-the-art sailing boats racing for the ultimate honour in sailing.  With glass walled restaurants and lounge areas, it is the home for the privileged few with the plastic pass designed by Javier Mariscal, that gives one access inside. Crew family members, sponsors, organizers and guests can enjoy the view and the facilities while being immediately near the boats and crews coming and going.

The groundfloor area, carefully integrated by David Chipperfield with the surrounding area, has cafes and restaurants that are more accessible to the public, thus making the building agreeable non-restrictive. The massive volume of bare concrete, steel and glass sits near the sea as if ready to sail on its own.