Photographer Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre has sent us his photos of the Centro Niemeyer by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, which opens tomorrow in Avilés, Spain.

An auditorium for 1000 spectators spills onto a public plaza, which also contains a viewing tower and three-storey dome-shaped museum.

A spiral staircase inside the museum leads to a mezzanine where light and sound installations will be on show for the inaugural exhibition, featuring work by film director Carlo Saura.

A separate building houses a cinema, rehearsal rooms, meeting areas and conference halls.

Photographs are by Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre/View.

The information below is from the Centro Cultural Internacional:

In 1989, the now one hundred year old Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, was awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts Award. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Awards in 2006, the Prince of Asturias Foundation (FPA) invited all the award winners to participate in the celebrations.

"I am an architect and, as such, what I do is design buildings and that is just what I am going to do; design a building." And so, on a blank piece of paper, Oscar Niemeyer began sketching curves, a skill in which he excels. With this, Niemeyer offered one of the best possible gifts ever.

Those first sketches, drawn with a thick black marker, formed the foundations of an ambitious cultural project which will be housed in what Niemeyer himself has called his most important project in Europe and his only project in Spain.

Programme

The Niemeyer Center is an open door to culture in all its shapes, forms, traditions and styles. Music, theatre, cinema, expositions, conferences and outdoor and educational news will be the main focus of a multidisciplinary cultural programme of which the only common denominator is excellence.

The Niemeyer Center was created to attract talent, knowledge and creativity. From this point of view, not only will it be a gateway to the best of the world's culture, but also a producer of contents. Since the celebration of the First World Forum of Cultural Centres in Avilés the Niemeyer Center has worked in connection with some of the most prestigious cultural centres throughout the world, such as the Carnegie Hall, the Old Vic Theatre and Cannes Film Festival, among others.

Facilities and Spaces The Niemeyer Center is the only piece of work created by Oscar Niemeyer to be built in Spain and, in his own words, it will be the most important of all his European designs.

Driven by the same healthy ambition, the Niemeyer Center aims to become an international reference point in the production of cultural content; a space associated with excellence dedicated to education and culture. In order to accomplish this, the cultural complex will consist of five areas which are both separate yet complementary to each other:

• An auditorium with capacity for 1,000 spectators.
• An almost 4,000 square meter open-plan exhibition site.
• Viewing point over the estuary and the city.
• Multi-use building that will house a cinema, rehearsal areas and meeting and conference halls.
• An open square, where entertainment and cultural activities will be programmed on a continuous basis, which will form a point of union between the Center and the city.

See also:

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