City of Arts and Sciences:
The City of Arts and Sciences, developed by Santiago Calatrava, is a large-scale urban recreation centre for culture and science, which also incorporates L’Oceanogràfic, an underwater city designed by the late Felix Candela.
Set in the old dried-up riverbed of the Turia, midway between the old city of Valencia and the coastal district of Nazaret, the City of Arts and Sciences covers an area of 350,000 square meters.
Following a disastrous flood in 1957, the river was diverted along a canal to the south of the city, and the dried-out riverbed planted as a 7 kilometre long promenade through the centre of the city. The promenade is crossed by two streamlined new bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava.
This impressive architectural ensemble brings new focus to an incoherent and underdeveloped area, while linking and providing a marker for the outer areas of the city.
GOLF:
EL SALER: The course is situated in the Albufera Nature Park on the shores of the Mediterranean, just south of the city of Valencia. It is laid out on terrain dotted with pine trees and sand dunes, with the last few holes looking very much like a typical English course.
EL BOSQUE: Just 15 minutes from Manises airport and 25 minutes from the city centre. It has an 18-hole round located on very undulating terrain, the fairways are narrow and there is abundant local vegetation.
ESCORPION: Located in a lovely valley, surrounded by small hills covered with pine trees. The course is picturesque, even though it is not particularly undulating. It has five lakes, on which numerous birds nest.
MANISES: The oldest of the Valencian clubs. It is a 9-hole course, whose flat layout requires precision and constancy because the fairways are narrow and flanked by dense trees, and the greens are small and surrounded by numerous bunkers.
Santiago Calatrava:
'As the site is close to the sea, and Valencia is so dry, I decided to make water a major element for the whole site using it as a mirror for the architecture.”
Major projects that were recently inaugurated include Sondica Airport, Bilbao (2000); The Bridge of Europe, Orléans, France (2000); the Bodegas Ysios winery in Laguardia, Spain (2001); and Calatrava’s first building in the United States, the acclaimed expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum (2001). Among the projects that are currently coming to completion are Blackhall Place Bridge, Dublin, Ireland (early 2003); Tenerife Opera House, Santa Cruz, Canary Islands (September 2003); Petach Tikvah Bridge, Tel Aviv, Israel (spring 2003); Quatro Ponte sul Canal Grande, Venice, Italy (late 2003/early 2004); Turtle Bay Bridge, Redding, California (summer 2004); the Athens Olympic Sports Complex (summer 2004); and the Valencia Opera House (2005), the last major building in his City of Arts and Sciences.
Other Activities:
museum visits, clubbing, America´s Cup, Moto GP, Formula 1
