Rafael Moneo’s glass cubes in San Sebastian.
Few buildings illustrate the development of international architecture during the 1990's in such a thought-provoking way as the Kursaal culture center complex in the Basque town of San Sebastian. The architecture was determined by a closed design competition in March 1990 with the Spanish architect, Rafael Moneo (b.1937) as the winner, and the scheme was completed in August 1999. In addition to spanning the period of the 1990's, Kursaal also represents the minimalistic excesses of the decade mixed with an understandable fear of being locked into a stereotyped form idiom.Originally, Kursaal was the name of a gambling casino that functioned during Spain’s Belle Epoque period from 1921-24, until a ban forced its closing, which was followed by sixty years of unsettled conditions until it was finally torn down. In 1985, the municipality acquired the attractive casino property, which made it possible to supplement Spain’s most exclusive resort town with a combined congress and concert hall.