Imagined to mark the festive year of 2001, when the city of Porto was European Capital of Culture, Casa da Música is the first building built in Portugal exclusively dedicated to music, both in the field of presentation and public enjoyment, and in the field of artistic training and creation.

The Casa da Música project was defined in 1999 as the result of an international architectural competition that chose the solution presented by Rem Koolhaas - Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Construction began in 1999 on the site of the former Remise do Porto at the Rotunda da Boavista, and Casa da Música was inaugurated in the spring of 2005, on 15 April.