Santiago Calatrava: a redefinition of 21st century urbanity

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, Oct-Nov, 2004 by Gabriela Velazquez

If one is still trapped in the old argument that claims that architecture is not an art because its main purpose is utilitarian, one glance at the life-work of Santiago Calatrava might just solve the riddle once and for all. Calatrava's buildings and bridges have often been called true works of art, but that does not mean they are not functional: his complex, almost magical, designs are grated urban projects that deliver all the practical benefits for which they were planned in the first place.

Calatrava's creations, now a powerful presence throughout the globe, have become a lot more than transportation structures or concert halls. In many places they are actually monuments or landmarks that have redefined the image of the city. Twelve honorary doctorates and countless prestigious awards demonstrate the solid reputation of his career and increase his work agenda everyday with projects only the very best can undertake. His signature in the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, which he redesigned and improved for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, is indelible; and the United States, which already exhibits some of his work, selected him to design the New World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York City and the Woodall Rodgers Extension Bridge for the Trinity River Corridor Project in Dallas, Texas.

Far too many great architects would never dare dream of accumulating so many first-rate projects, but Calatrava is apparently one of those few men who could not tell what is like to be unsuccessful. Now in his early fifties, after some seventeen years of professional work, Calatrava enjoys an international prominence he did not have to wait for years and years to achieve, for it was attained at a very early stage in his careen As a child, he always showed a particular inclination towards art and at some point intended to become a plastic artist, until he finally chose architecture as his major in college.

After graduating from the Institute of Architecture in Valencia with a degree in architecture and a post-graduate course in urbanism, he went on to do what has probably made the substantial difference between himself and other outstanding architects: he got a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. "I had become curious about the exact mathematics, physics, and construction of these great structures I had been studying about," he says. "I wanted to know how these things would work: the Pantheon, the dome of Michelangelo, the dome of Brunelleschi. So I decided to study civil engineering." The combination of the two disciplines--engineering and architecture gave him the ability to integrate both the creative and the structural aspects of design in his work.

His first full-time job was as an assistant at the ETH, where he accepted small engineering commissions and began to enter design competitions. The design and construction of the Stadelhofen Railway Station in Zurich was his first winning proposal back in 1983. Most of his early work was done in Zurich and Spain, and from this period he earned enough recognition to allow him to extend his work scope first over Europe, and then to other parts of the world. Some of these first structures include the Alamillo Bridge and viaduct (World's Fair in Seville, Spain), the Campo Volantin Footbridge (Billbao, Spain), the Alameda Bridge and underground station (Valencia, Spain) and the bridge project that actually garnered him international projection--the Bach de Roda Bridge for the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain (1984).

"I left Spain when Franco was still in power, and I spent many years away," he explains. "And then I was very lucky to be a part of the reconstruction of this country, which had been cut off for forty years. Germany and Italy had rebuilt themselves after World War II. Now Spain was doing something a bit similar, but forty years later. The country had a tremendous need to do something, to become a part of the rest of the world. It was a very positive moment. Clients wanted to make landmarks, to do beautiful things. That's why each of my bridges in Spain could be an experiment."

By the 1990's, he had already established three offices, in Zurich, Paris and Valencia to design and build all sorts of multifunctional buildings, bridges, railway stations, airports, etc. He has rarely designed totally enclosed buildings. Open structures, sculptural surfaces, unconventional materials, moving parts and innovative lightning systems have been established as the distinctive Santiago Calatrava signature.

Calatrava improved the existing Olympic Sports Complex in Athens with a central pedestrian axis, links to transportation and support facilities. Sports fans were protected from Athens' burning sun with the retractable roof Calatrava designed for the stadium. The shape of the roof resembles a bird with open wings, or ocean waves as well, basically shapes found in nature: Calatrava's favorite source of inspiration.

Calatrava cautions viewers, though, against the temptation to fix too specific a meaning to the organic imagery of his designs. "What's most important," he says, "is not so much the image as the gesture. Very often, when you describe a building, you say, 'It's shaped like that,' and you move your hands to make a dome. Or you say, 'There's a wing that runs here,' and you draw your hand through the air. So even in talking about architecture, the gesture is crucial. It gives you motion, the idea of moving through. In these terms, I have to say that the act of drawing, for me, is often a support for the act of making architecture. When you draw, you're not just making an image. You're also gesticulating. The use of the sketch helps to introduce this idea of the gesture into architecture. Also, the act of drawing almost automatically brings a sense of the organic into architecture."