Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava (born July 28, 1951, Benimamet, near Valencia, Spain) is a Spanish architect widely known for his sculptural bridges and buildings.

Calatrava studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, from which he graduated in 1974. The following year he began a course in structural engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, receiving a Ph.D. in technical science (1979) for a thesis entitled “On the Foldability of Frames.” In 1981 he established his own architecture and engineering firm in Zürich. (He would later open offices in Paris, Valencia, and New York.)

Calatrava gained a reputation for his ability to blend advanced engineering solutions with dramatic visual statements, in both bridges and buildings. When Expo ’92 was going to Sevilla, Spain, the city needed to have bridges constructed to allow access to an island that would be used for exhibitions. Calatrava’s Alamillo Bridge (1987–92), built for this purpose, instantly received international attention. The dramatic structure’s central feature is a 466-foot (142-metre) pylon that inclines asymmetrically away from the river, supporting a span with more than a dozen pairs of cables. The dramatic image, resembling a harp, transformed bridge engineering into a form of sculpture that can invigorate its surrounding landscape. Calatrava’s other innovative bridges include the Lusitania Bridge (1988–91) in Mérida, Spain, the Campo Volantin Footbridge (1990–97) in Bilbao, Spain, and the Woman’s Bridge (1998–2001) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Architecture: The Built World

In his architectural commissions, Calatrava used his knowledge of engineering to create innovative, sculptural structures, often in concrete and steel. He stated that nature served as his guide, inspiring him to create buildings that reflected natural shapes and rhythms. He was intensely interested in the architectural use of zoomorphic forms, a passion evident in such buildings as Turning Torso (1999–2005), his unique apartment tower in Malmö, Sweden. Its sculptural shape suggested a twisting spinal column. For the Lyon (France) Airport Railway Station (1989–94), he created a building that resembled a bird with outspread wings; the interior skeletal steel frame reinforced this birdlike effect. The bird allusion had symbolic meaning as well, since the station served as the end point of the route from Lyon to the airport. Calatrava’s other memorable buildings include a renovation of the Stadelhofen Railway station (1983–90) in Zürich, the BCE Place Gallery and Heritage Square (1987–92) in Toronto, Tenerife Opera House (1991–2003) in the Canary Islands, and several structures (including an opera house, an arboretum, and a planetarium) for the City of Arts and Sciences (1991–2004) in Valencia.

In the early 1990s Calatrava begin to add movable aspects to his buildings. In the Kuwait Pavillion for Expo ’92 (1991–92), for example, he introduced segmented roof pieces that separate and regroup, creating different shapes and lighting effects. This changeable quality reached new heights in his addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum (1994–2001), Wisconsin, for which he created a movable brisé soleil that resembles the wings of a bird as it opens and closes.

Calatrava received the contract to design the new rail station on the former site of the World Trade Center in New York City in 2004. After years of revisions, delays, and escalating costs, the transit hub opened to mixed reviews in 2016. On the same site, his replacement for the 19th-century Greek Orthodox church that had been destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks was opened in 2022. The building’s form recalls Byzantine basilicas, and its facade is made from thin sheets of marble so that the structure glows at night. Meanwhile, plans to build Calatrava’s design for the Chicago Spire, which would have been the world’s tallest residential building (2,000 feet [610 metres]), did not come to fruition.

Calatrava’s other interests included drawing and sculpting. These works as well as his architecture models were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2005), New York; the Hermitage (2012), St. Petersburg, Russia; and the Vatican Museums (2014). Calatrava’s public sculptures temporarily lined Park Avenue (2015), New York, and were permanently installed on the bank of the Chicago River (Constellation [2020]), Chicago. Calatrava was the recipient of the 2005 Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects.

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