Spain his homeland, Switzerland his second home. Santiago Calatrava has two souls, two lands, many approaches and a forward-looking vision of architecture, which goes beyond the 'normally understood' space.
The Valencian Architect and Engineer, who in 1974 wrote a dissertation in Civil Engineering entitled "Foldability of Space Frames".in which he deals with the theme of geometric compression patterns in space, an important starting point for his work, he is not insensitive to other art forms.
It follows its vocation towards the plastic and figurative artshe became passionate about sculpture, as well as painting and ceramics.
This multidisciplinary approach allows him to literally break down space into architecturalin a constant tireless search for multifaceted expressive models. A good illustration of this vision of architecture was his exhibition in 2013 at the Vatican Museums, entitled 'The metamorphosis of space'around 140 architectural projects, accompanied by their preparatory studies, watercolour paintings, and sculptures, monumental or smaller, in bronze, marble, alabaster and wood, from which the philosophy behind the project emerges, as well as its poetics, its essence.
Among his most important works, which are numerous and include bridges, stations and viaducts, characterised by complex, curved and oblique forms, are undoubtedly the Bac de Roda Bridge in Barcelona, the Railway Station Stadelhofen in Zurich, the Alamillo Bridge in Seville, the Lyon-Saint-Exupéry TGV station in Lyon and the Liège-Guillemins station, the Puente de la Mujer in Buenos Aires, the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin, the highest cable-stayed bridge in Europe in Cosenza, named after San Francesco di Paola.
But the list is enriched with extraordinary works that, in their monumentality, sculptural forms and symbolic and iconic references, bear the unmistakable and indelible signature of an all-round artist, who was able to give space a new identity.
Admiring his architectural works means admiring works of high technology, in which form and space are inextricably linked to a very precise meaning, to a reflection that is the expression of a profound essence. Space is art and art is looked at and experienced at the same time.
In his works, Calatrava He pours out an imagery that is strongly inspired by nature, the marine world or the movement of the eyes, with canid and zoomorphic 'architectural sculptures' that seem to come to life before the eyes of the beholder. His architectural prodigies seduce by their complexity, their grandeur, their plasticity, they amaze by their meaning, masterfully translated by an architect and engineer who does not forget his artistic sensibility.
His poetics of movement, the whiteness of the works, which are enriched with transparencies, are other aspects that identify his work. A work that has also caused discussion
and which has earned him a series of awards and prizes over the years, including the latest in 2016, the Leaf Awards.
