"Casa da Musica" means "The House of Music".
This striking building is an award-winning concert hall and arts venue.
It was born out of bizarre circumstances. In 1999, after Porto had been named European culture capital for 2001, a competition was launched to design a new concert hall in the city's historical centre, Rotunda da Boavista.
At around the same time, Metropolitan Architecture [OMA] partner Rem Koolhaas suddenly found himself sitting on a design he liked but couldn't use.

He'd been asked to design a house for one of his clients, who dropped the project just as Koolhaas was contemplating entering the competition.
Rather than ditching the design, he blew it up in scale and adapted it.
The judging panel liked it and OMA won the contract.