The venue, translated into English as "City of Arts", was inaugurated in 2013 and became the largest modern concert hall in South America, with 1,720 seats.

It is the home of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and regularly hosts musical and artistic events, as well as conventions.

It also played host to a special ceremony last year to mark exactly one year to go until Rio 2016 attended by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and IOC counterpart, Thomas Bach.

Although renowned for its elegant and dynamic architectural style, the venue did court controversy during its development for exceeding its initial budget almost seven times over.

It eventually cost around R$515 million (£175 million/$250 million/€219 million).

The venue lies approximately eight kilometres south-east of the Olympic Park across the Lagoa de Jacarepaguá.

It is 4.6km to the north-west of the IOC Family Hotel here at the Windsor Marapendi which will serve as the official IOC base for the duration of the Games.

The IOC Session is due to be held from August 1 to 3, concluding two days before the Olympic Opening Ceremony in the Maracanã Stadium, although this is subject to change.

The Executive Board meeting scheduled for immediately before the Session from July 30 until 31 is set to take place here in the same rooms being used for the ongoing Coordination Commission inspection.

This visit, which officially began with a Plenary Session this morning, is thus billed as a form of test event for the Games-time hotel.

As well as the IOC Session, Japan House will also be located in the Cidade das Artes.

It is expected to be a major hub during the Games due to Tokyo hosting the next edition of the Olympics and Paralympics in 2020.

Decisions set to be made at the IOC Session include the ratification of new IOC members and new sports due to appear at Tokyo 2020.

This follows the proposal of baseball and softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing by Japanese organisers last year.