It was designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, and is located in Donostia-San Sebastián (Basque Country, Spain).

Once the 1972 project discarded, and facing the possibility of building a great auditorium in the K Plot, six architects were consulted in 1989: Mario Botta, Norman Foster, Arata Isozaki, Rafael Moneo, Juan Navarro Baldeweg and Luis Peña Ganchegui.

The Kursaal Congress Centre was designed by Rafael Moneo and awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2001.

The significance of the building (opened August 23, 1999, with a concert of the Euskadi Simphonic Orchestra and Ainhoa Arteta) was also eclipsed by the parallel construction of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, which was twice as expensive as the Kursaal.

However, after an adaptation period, most citizens came to tolerate the inappropriate style of the Kursaal building, and support the positive role which it plays in the economy, tourism and cultural life of Donostia.

Between the cubes there is a large terrace, commanding views which take in the Zurriola Beach and the mouth of the Urumea river.