Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The museum covers 24,000 square metres, of which 11,000 are given to exhibitions, and became one of the landmarks of late twentieth century architecture.

From the square, visitors descend a broad stair into the hall, a move that bridges the height difference between the riverside, where the museum stands, and the higher level of the city. The top of the building is crowned by a large skylight shaped like a metal flower over the atrium, one of its most characteristic features.

Curved volumes clad in titanium, limestone and glass unfold along the river, and one end of the site is crossed by a bridge that the building wraps beneath.