Santiago Calatrava

Calatrava Valls, Santiago (1951– ). Spanish-born architect, engineer, and urbanist, who established an architectural and engineering practice in Zürich (1981) and Paris (1989). His firm has designed numerous distinguished and innovative bridges (Barcelona, Bilbao, Córdoba, Lérida, Mérida, Ripoll, Seville, Valencia, Zürich, and other sites). He has also been responsible for canopies, railway-stations (his Lyons TGV Station (1989–94) and Stadelhofen Station, Zürich (1988–90), are particularly interesting), museums, concert-halls, towers, and works of sculpture, and has been the recipient of many awards. In combining architecture, engineering, and sculpture, he has succeeded in reversing a trend to separate these disciplines that has been one of the legacies of Modernism. Among his recent designs are the Sondica Airport, with its huge wing-like roofs, and the Campo Volantin Bridge, both in Bilbao, Spain (and both 1995), the Milwaukee Art Museum, WI (1994–2001), and the Auditorium, Santa Cruz, Tenerife (2000–3), both examples of an architecture owing something, perhaps, to Biomorphism, with their vast overhanging wing-like structures.

Bibliography

Blaser (1990);
Kalman (1994);
Frampton et al. (1996);
Jodidio (1998);
Lefaivre (ed.) (2001);
Levin (2003);
McQuaid (1993);
Meyhöfer (1995);
Polano (ed.) (1996);
Sharp (ed.) (1994);
Jane Turner (1996);
Tischhauser & von Moos (eds.) (1998);
Tzonis (2000);
Tzonis (ed.) (2001);
Tzonis & and Lefaivre (1995).

Santiago Calatrava 1951-, Spanish architect, b. Benimamet, near Valencia. He studied at the Institute of Architecture, Valencia (grad. 1974), and at the Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (Ph.D., 1981). He opened his own architectural and engineering practice in Zürich in 1981 and later expanded to Valencia and Paris. Influenced by the work of Eero Saarinen , Calatrava has become known for the arching sculptural forms of his large public buildings. These structures—railway stations, bridges, airports, and museums—are built of concrete, metal, and glass and are rarely completely enclosed. The unusual spaces and swooping shapes of these works, which often seem poised for flight, reflect a refined aesthetic sensibility informed by engineering skill. Among his most notable commissions are the Stadelhofen Railway Station, Zürich (1984); Lyons Airport Terminal, France (1994); Campo Volantin Footbridge, Bilbao, Spain (1998); Science City, Valencia, Spain (2000); and the opera house, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands (2003). Motion is often important in his work, as in his first American building, the Milwaukee Art Museum's Quadracci Pavilion (2001), which includes louvered sunscreens that rise from the building like giant wings, opening and closing to control light. Calatrava is also known for his drawings and sculpture, which have been exhibited in numerous galleries since 1985.

Bibliography: See his Dynamic Equilibrium, Recent Projects (1996) and Conversations with Students: The MIT Lectures (2002); studies by D. Sharp, ed. (1994), K. Frampton, ed. (1996), S. Polano (1996, tr. 1999), A. Tzonis (1996), S. van Moos, ed. (1998), L. Molinari, ed. (1999); P. Jodidio (2001), A. Cuito, ed. (2002), and M. Levin (2002).