Built in 2005 and designed by the great Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, the Auditório Ibirapuera contains many different faces: it all depends on which side you approach it from. One side looks like a rectangle; the profile, a triangle; the entrance, which is dominated by a red “labareda” (“flame”) that weaves through the building before finally spitting out into the park, looks like a modern version of a pharaoh’s palace.The interior contains artwork by Tomie Ohtake and Luís Antônio Vallandro Keating, as well as an 800-seat concert hall.

The Auditório can be used for both indoor and outdoor shows: a 65-foot-wide door opens at the back of the stage so that Ibirapuera Park provides a beautiful live backdrop—or allows for an audience of approximately fifteen thousand people.