Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava Valls
28 July 1951
Is an internationally recognized and award-winning Valencian Spanish architect, sculptor and structural engineer whose principal office is in Zürich, Switzerland. Classed now among the elite designers of the world, he has offices in Zürich, Paris and Valencia.

Calatrava was born in Benimámet, an old municipality now integrated as an urban part of Valencia, Spain, where he pursued undergraduate studies at the Architecture School and Arts and Crafts School. Following graduation in 1975, he enrolled in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, for graduate work in civil engineering. In 1981, after completing his doctoral thesis, "On the Foldability of Space Frames", he started his architecture and engineering practice.

Career

Calatrava's early career was dedicated largely to bridges and train stations, the designs for which elevated the status of civil engineering projects to new heights. His Montjuic Communications Tower in Barcelona, Spain (1991) in the heart of the 1992 Olympic site was a turning point in his career, leading to a wide range of commissions. The Quadracci Pavilion (2001) of the Milwaukee Art Museum was his first US building. Calatrava’s entry into high-rise design began with an innovative 54 story high twisting tower, called Turning Torso (2005), located in Malmö, Sweden.

Calatrava is currently designing the future train station - World Trade Center Transportation Hub - at the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York City.

Calatrava’s style has been heralded as bridging the division between structural engineering and architecture. In this, he continues a tradition of Spanish modernist engineering that includes Félix Candela and Antonio Gaudí. Nonetheless, his style is very personal and derives from numerous studies he makes of the human body and the natural world.

The Alamillo Bridge in Seville, Andalusia (Spain) spans the Canal de Alfonso XIII in Seville, allowing access to La Cartuja, an island between the canal and the Guadalquivir River. The bridge was constructed as part of infrastructure improvements for Expo 92, which was held on a large site on the island. Construction of the bridge began in 1989 and was completed in 1992 from a design by Santiago Calatrava.

The bridge is of the cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge type and consists of a single pylon, counterbalancing a 200 m span with thirteen lengths of cables. The original intent was to build two symmetrical bridges on either side of the island, but in the end, the Alamillo's singular design has proved most striking.

This bridge represents the soaring aspirations of the city of Seville in preparation for Expo 92.

Calatrava's Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay located in Redding, California (2004), and Chords Bridge in Jerusalem, Israel, are similar in design to the Alamillo Bridge.

The Puente de la Mujer (Spanish for "Woman's Bridge") is a footbridge in the Puerto Madero district of Buenos Aires, Argentina that spans dock 3 (dique 3). It is of the Cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge type and is also a swing bridge, but somewhat unique in its asymmetrical arrangement. It has a single mast with cables suspending a portion of the bridge which rotates 90 degrees in order to allow water traffic to pass. When it swings to allow watercraft passage the far end comes to a resting point on a stabilizing pylon.

It was designed by Santiago Calatrava and is similar to his Puente del Alamillo and Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, but with a forward, rather than a reverse angled cantilever, as is seen in those bridges. The footbridge was donated by Alberto L. González to the City of Buenos Aires in gratitude for 60 years of work in the country. Started in 1998, it was completed on December 20, 2001.