National Opera House Madrid

This rare office submittal to an international competition is triangular in shape with gently rounded corners. The design was drawn by Dick Binfield, who later noted the import of the project in the office history. The relationship of form to program (especially for theater) was influential on thinking for Marina City’s theater of the same time.

While not fully developed, the Opera House is a key transitional work between the office’s earlier free-form shapes and later extruded vertical forms used in large institutional projects. Its vertically extruded form was trimmed for sculptural effect; its interior roof was likely a light-weight structure suspended from the concrete shell.