Santiago Calatrava

Named one of the “100 most influential people” by Time Magazine in 2005, the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava never tires of livening up modern architecture.

An architect has hardly ever made the headlines beyond publications specialised in architecture! Santiago Calatrava is a workaholic operating both sides of the Atlantic to produce some of the most extraordinary buildings that have been built over the last twenty years. He is one of the most prolific, high profile and controversial architects of the 21st century. He graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura (Valencia) and completed his training in town planning studies at the same institution and then completed training in Civil Engineering at ETH Zurich in 1979. Now, at 57, is designs are taking off in a range of sculptural and symbolic forms like works of art on a monumental scale. Bridges, museums, concert halls, stations, airports, skyscrapers, nothing is impossible in his offices in Zurich, Valencia or New York. A glance at any of his work confirms his talent as painter and sculptor.   His many exhibitions over nearly 25 years are confirmation of this. His architectural output is too large to give in detail, so we have chosen to comment on some of his recent or upcoming flagship projects. 

In summer 2004 the Athens Olympics highlighted the Olympic stadium and its roof. A real expression of architectural prowess, the suspended structure partially covers the stands and is a series of double metallic arches covered with thousands of polycarbonate plates. In 2005 it was the turn of the Turning Torso in Malmö (Sweden) to turn heads. The nine superimposed cubes making up the skeleton of the building are stacked with a skew of several degrees. The progressive turn (90 degrees from foundations to the roof) of this huge 190 metre tall glass and steel spiral represents a turning human body. At the other end of the Europe, his Tenerife Auditorium, where a succession of platforms outline in a complex silhouette the large curve of the symphony hall, enveloped by an unusual wing suspended over 50 metres from the ground.  The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts celebrates the marine world in Valencia. The building shelters some spectacular scenic spaces and plays on contrasts between the opaque side of the structure and the transparency of the large glass volumes. Common denominator of all these buildings, the sensation of movement suggestive of living beings and the incredible whiteness of their white concrete finishing are very impressive. Also the suspension bridge started least year in Jerusalem, 360 metres long and weighing more than 4,000 tonnes of steel, it has a striking visual lightness, most probably because it depicts the harp of King David.

Calatrava’s first work in the United States, the extension of the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2001, is by no means a one off. After the Sundial Bridge in Turtle Bay in California (2004) Calatrava designed the Chicago Spire a 115 floor tower which is soon to become the highest in the United States. Work started in June 2007. Inspired by a spiral sculpture, it should be crowned with a 152 metre pinnacle to finish at 609 metres in 2012. Another ambitious project, in New York, is a residential sky scraper with a total surface of 175,000 m2 which will be made up of a dozen giant glass cubes fixed alternately to the central node in concrete. But the project which should really put Calatrava’s footprint on American soil is undoubtedly the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in Lower Manhattan, which should be completed in 2014. The form of the new station suggests a dove that is about to take off. The main body has two 45 metre high wings attached to a huge hall. The glass vault will let natural light penetrate to the level of the platforms. The low and curved forms of the building will contrast with the linearity and height of Daniel Libeskind and David Childs’ Freedom Tower.

As all these projects show, Santiago Calatrava occupies a special place in the landscape of contemporary architecture. At the start of his designs Santiago Calatrava works in charcoal or watercolours with a real expressive force. His work testifies to his qualities as architect, engineer and artist.

A number of buildings created by Santiago Calatrava start off as sculptures. This is the work that the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York presented in 2006 in an exhibition entitled “Sculpture into architecture”.

www.calatrava.com