Architect Santiago Calatrava has been using Valencia, Spain as his canvas, building one of Europe’s biggest performing arts palaces. “It’s a flashy new culture palace all right, designed by one of the world’s premier league ‘starchitects’, Calatrava, and it could well do for Spain’s third city what Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim did for Bilbao. But there are some key differences. First and foremost, Valencia is Calatrava’s home town. He was born there, grew up there, studied there and even published a book on the city’s architecture. And although his office is based in Zurich, Calatrava has been building in Valencia for most of his career.”