Casa da Música

This guide to Casa da Musica in Porto traces how Rem Koolhaas and his team, tasked with giving the city its first purpose-built concert hall for 2001's stint as European Capital of Culture, rejected shape after shape before finding a way around the plain rectangular room that acoustics testing always favors. It follows the long, over-budget build on the site of an old tram terminus, and the unlikely performer who played inside it first when the hall finally opened in 2005. The plaza outside has taken on a life of its own since, so look down at the concrete slopes as you listen.