Santiago Calatrava - Essay Example

Santiago Calatrava and his Icons of Design The close relationship between art and architecture is undeniable. It is true that architecture inspires and takes its inspiration from other art forms. Thus, architecture can easily be created in such a way as to intentionally become an icon of design. Many architects work with this concept in mind and it becomes a driving force of their work. One such architect is Santiago Calatrava, who blends art and architecture to such a dramatic extent that it becomes difficult to determine where art leaves off and architecture begins. Calatrava concentrates most of his attentions on creating forms that highlight the progress of mankind. In doing so, he is attempting to inspire other human beings to new heights of spiritual and natural connection through their experience of his works. Some biographic material is necessary to understand some of Santiago Calatrava's influences and the major theories that have affected his work, but it is only by studying the work itself that one can form an appreciation for how Calatrava manages to address the human within his icons of design. Having grown up in a small rural area of Spain, Calatrava took inspiration from some of the most creative architects of past generations and creates new works of art that remain functional as public structures. Whether creating something as mundane as a communication tower or a high-rise apartment building capable of sheltering the multitudes, Calatrava conveys the beauty of nature's forms within the icons of design he creates. Santiago Calatrava Valls was born in a rural area of Valencia Spain known as Benimamet on July 28, 1951. His love for architecture and building emerged at a young age and he completed his undergraduate work at the Architecture School and Art and Crafts School in Valencia, finishing in 1975. Then he enrolled in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. It was here that he gained knowledge of civil engineering and began perfecting his ideas for mass human use of structures. After he graduated from this prestigious school in 1981, Calatrava launched his architectural career having already established a high reputation in the field. He increased this reputation by dedicating himself largely to public works projects, such as the construction of bridges and train stations that still managed (Winkelman & Duncan, 2002). One such early piece that illustrates his unique perspective and eye for natural line is the Ernsting Warehouse Doors. They are created to appear more or less like any other warehouse except that the division between the doors resembles a human smile rather than a solid face or a vertical divide down the middle. The magic of these doors takes place as they open. The bottom half of the door folds under the top and the panels flare in such a way that the doors create a flared opening reminiscent of a bazaar tent - reflecting the purpose of the building. Through his work, Calatrava has proven to be either an architect with the soul of a sculptor or a sculptor with the soul of an architect. Some of the architects he takes his influence from include other innovative iconographers Felix Candela, who brought Spanish architecture to world attention, and Antonio Gaudi, another Spanish architect who challenged many of the standards of the Barcelona elite in the execution of his designs. Le Corbusier also had a strong influence on Calatrava, particularly in his emphasis upon using organic forms (Eardley, 2006). Although Calatrava obviously takes inspiration from these earlier architects, he always remains focused upon the inherent forms of the human body and the forms discovered in the natural world when he designs his structures, always keeping the elements of engineering firmly in mind as he considers the use of the finished space and the appeal of its final form. The turning point that made Calatrava a big name in the architectural world came with his construction of the Montjuic Communications Tower in Barcelona. The project was completed just in time for the 1992 Olympics to be held there the following year. The tower is a minimalist representation of an athlete’s arm as it stretches up to carry the official Olympic torch. It is a highly appropriate theme since the tower was created specifically to allow television coverage of the Olympic games scheduled to take place in that location. Other interpretations have argued the figure is the exhausted athlete, kneeling upon the ground in physical collapse, yet still holding high the torch of the games. In providing a tower that can offer two possible interpretations directly linked to the concepts and symbols of the Olympic games for which it was built, Calatrava immediately engaged the community with his iconographic work. Although he managed to successfully incorporate these event-specific ideas into the design of the tower, he also considered the future of the tower once the games had moved on. With this in mind, the tower is specifically oriented to work with the natural forces of the sun to create a giant sundial clock for passersby utilizing the Europa square as a means of indicating the hour (Tischhauser, Stanislaus & von Moos, 1998). The tower makes another connection with the past by using Gaudi’s mosaic technique for part of its external facade. This technique uses broken tiles to create mosaic patterns and images and is used at the tower’s base. In this single icon of design, Calatrava manages to connect the individual with the symbol of the Olympic spirit, assure further connection between the individual and nature well into the future since this icon of high technology with its satellite dishes and facilitating mass communication becomes connected with the natural of geometric forms in the grace of its curves and the most basic of human technology in its incorporation of the sundial effect. The extreme influence of nature upon his work, particularly the natural forms and movements of the other inhabitants of the earth, are strongly reflected within his sculptural works and drawings. “Calatrava welcomes the analogy to living creatures, which leaves him open to the charge of sentimentality. His watercolor drawings of human and animal forms manifest this affinity in a somewhat more representational mode, no less rhythmic and fluid” (Eardley, 2006). The interactive effect of his varying forms of art is reflected in a comparison of his drawings and his architectural creations such as the planetarium he designed in Valencia L’Hemisferic. The building is a laserium, planetarium and IMAX theater within the larger City of Arts and Science complex. It provides more than 900 square meters of screen for viewing various media and the building itself, undeniably in the shape of an eye, emphasizes this function (Valencia, 2008). Looking at the building from the other side of a small reflecting lake, it seems as if the building is looking back with a clear-eyed and open invitation. The building retains its man-made, structural distance through subtly altered details of design, such as the multiple vertical panes, giving the building a human-like quality rather than a human one. All of this has been traced in progression through his artwork to his design stage into finished architectural structure. “His wonderfully fluid and varied watercolor and graphite sketchbook drawings make it abundantly clear that his sources are frequently anatomical. His studies of human eyes are progressively simplified and finally vastly enlarged to create the basic forms of the planetarium building of his City of Arts and Sciences … While there are vast differences in scale, consistent reduction of anatomical form (such as the arc of the eyelid) to geometric components, and the altered vantage point of the viewer, the analogy from obviousness is prevented” (Eardley, 2006). Calatrava again creates a connection with the individual through this very frank and unflinching architectural glace across the placid waters and encourages interaction with nature and the sciences through its structural usage. Having established that nature is undeniably a focus for Calatrava, it is nevertheless a different focus than that seen in the works of others, such as Le Corbusier. Eardley (2006) points out how Calatrava’s sculpture differs significantly from that of Le Corbusier in that Le Corbusier designs all elements of the piece with the idea of the inspiration firmly fixed. By contrast, Calatrava’s piece, similarly inspired, remains rooted within the spirit of the human form and imagines, from that point, the birdlike attributes that would give the necessary lift to the finished design. In keeping with this foundational understanding of the artist, it is possible to see how the designs themselves, as in the planetarium discussed above, typically will take their inspiration from the human form and creative artwork first, such as in the Twisted Torso. Gorel Espelund (2006) explains that Switzerland’s ‘Turning Torso’ apartment block originated with a Calatrava sculpture. “In 1996, the Spanish sculptor and architect Santiago Calatrava created a design he called the Twisting Torso – a twisting human form consisting of a number of cubes … The form president of HSB [a housing organization in Sweden] had the idea for the building when he saw Calatrava’s sculpture in a brochure. It did not take long before he traveled to Switzerland to discuss with Calatrava the possibility of transferring the sculptural concept to a twisted building” (Espelund, 2006). Although not actually representing a human form, the apartment building looks as though a giant hand gripped the top of the building and twisted it 90 degrees while allowing the foot of the building to remain anchored in place. Even if this were realistically possible, though, the end result would not be as graceful or attractive as Calatrava’s design. The difference, again, is in the small details in which the sculptor appears within the architect. To achieve the desired effect, all of the faces of the building are slightly curved. Diagonal supports provide it with its uplifting energy. Even the diagonal lines of the corners are permitted a gently curved appearance enhancing the building's grace. Inspired by humans, the building retains the soft curves of the human or natural world while attending to the high volume needs of the area. Like his countrymen and the architects who inspired him, Calatrava is an artisan in that he engages in many different forms of art as he expresses his creative ideas. His early training in architecture has enabled him to transfer many of the ideas he’s had in art into solidly constructed icons that are compelling in and of themselves. Even strictly utilitarian structures, such as the Montjuic Communications Tower in Barcelona, are transformed into structures that provide long term multiple benefit to the people of the area under Calatrava's guiding hand. Part of his long vision can be attributed to his sculptor’s eye in which he understands that a structure built remains a structure to be seen. By studying his sculpture further, one can begin to understand how his artistic vision is first developed through non-architectural studies of nature and then slowly develop, through a series of abstractions and simplifications, into a comforting and entirely engaging structure. This sort of progression can be traced through Calatrava’s sculpture both as he intentionally converts his natural forms into structures, as in his studies for the human eye and the construction of the planetarium in Valencia, and as the connections accidentally occur, as in the development of the design for the ‘Turning Torso’ building in Sweden. By remaining focused on the human and otherwise natural forms of nature, Calatrava is able to conceive of iconographic designs that remain interesting to the intellect, inviting to the user, comforting to the viewer and humanistic in its identification and yet still retain a sense of architectural element that provides it with the just enough distance and abstraction to keep it from becoming frightening. Works Cited Eardley, Cynthia. “Santiago Calatrava.” The Brooklyn Rail. February 2006. Print. Espelund, Gorel. “The ‘Turning Torso’ is Sweden’s Newest Landmark.” Concrete Monthly. January 2006. Print. Tischhauser, Anthony, Stanislaus, & von Moos. Calatrava – Public Buildings. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhouser Publishers, 1998. Print. Valencia City Guide. “The City of Arts and Sciences.” (2008). Web. May 13, 2011. Winkelman, Victoria & Kami Duncan. “Biography: Santiago Calatrava.” SMU News. October 7, 2002. Print. Read More