Technical achievements of the architecture of Santiago Calatrava. The best creations of Santiago Calatrava. By: Alexey Lukashkin

In Copenhagen, there is an incredibly beautiful island of Slotsholmen, where the famous Christiansborg Palace is located - a luxurious building built in the neo-baroque style. The fate of the castle, frankly, is not easy: over the years of its existence, it burned down four times, but every time it was reborn from the ashes.

The first palace on this island was erected in 1167, and it was built on the orders of the legendary founder of the Danish capital. The castle was supposed to stand for centuries, but did not last even hundreds of years - in 1249 it was burned by the army of Lübeck. The building was rebuilt almost from scratch, however, it suffered a sad fate - in 1369 it was again destroyed by the enemy army.

For about four centuries, ruins stood on Slotsholmen. And only in 1745, by order of Christian VI, who, apparently, was not too superstitious and was not afraid of repeating history, a magnificent palace was again erected here. In honor of the king, the new castle was named Christiansborg. According to surviving documents, it was built in the Baroque style. The majestic palace became the new residence of the monarch, but not for long - just half a century later, in 1794, it burned down again, then the members of the royal family moved to Amalienborg. Nevertheless, despite three fires, the decision was made to rebuild Christiansborg again.

In 1828, the renovated palace was presented to the world: this time the architect was inspired by French classicism. However, the royal family did not want to return to it. The building was partially given to the Danish Parliament, but receptions continued to be held in its halls. What happened next is not difficult to guess - in 1884, a fire broke out in the castle again.

Probably, the members of the royal family were masochists at heart, otherwise it is simply impossible to explain their decision to rebuild the castle again. In any case, Christiansborg was rebuilt in 1928, this time in neo-baroque style. It is in this way, made of granite and copper, that we are seeing it now.

During construction, ancient ruins were discovered. It turned out that this is all that remains of the very first castle built here. By the way, anyone can see them now - a corresponding exhibition is open, and a museum is located in free rooms. Its greatest pride is the Throne Room: the royal throne and its interior are the few that were saved from the last fire.

Girls will surely be delighted with the luxurious collection of vintage clothes, and men will enjoy spending time looking at the exposition. firearms. Book lovers should also visit the royal library - more than 80,000 volumes are stored here. In addition, the museum tour includes a visit to the halls, which still receive distinguished guests.

Santiago Calatrava ( Spanish Santiago Calatrava Valls) is rightfully considered one of the most famous architects in the world. Winner of many architectural and engineering awards, an honorary doctorate from major universities in Europe and America, he is one of the ten most famous modern architects.

Close friends talk about Capatrava like an adult
a child who radiates a good mood,
which pervaded all his work. At the same
time is the architect, life and art
which is ruled by the obsession of the eternal
experimenter. He is in a state
constant search for new, trying not to miss
nothing significant about the craft

This Spanish master has inexhaustible creative energy, never ceases to amaze with his imagination, incredible activity, dynamic architectural images that amaze the imagination. For 30 years of fruitful work, he managed to implement more than 40 large-scale projects around the world. Today, this is considered a unique result. Creations of Calatrava - bridges and train stations, skyscrapers and theaters, stadiums and museums - can be seen in many cities and countries. Graceful and strange architectural volumes, reminiscent of fantastic flowers, animals, musical instruments, often give the impression of being too irrational, unstable. But the first feeling is deceptive: they are all built according to the laws of mathematical logic and precise engineering calculations. According to the famous formula of the great ancient theorist of architecture Vitruvius, the creations of Calatrava have three necessary basic qualities classical architecture: "usefulness, strength, beauty". Calatrava is a poet of architecture; in his projects, he combines the emotionality and freedom of an artist with the strict discipline and rationality of a practical builder. According to him, "the building is a sculpture that you can go into." Calatrava relies more on artistic flair than cold calculation. Extremely gifted by nature as a painter, sculptor and draftsman, he harmoniously combines in his architectural work the sense of color and form given to him, connects together seemingly incompatible moving, changing forms and volumes. The master is not afraid to deviate from strict rules and improvises, thinking about the integrity of the impression and the beauty of the image.

Calatrava is an architect-analyst who completely trusts intuition. It is intuition that helps him in choosing a single solution from a dozen possible ones. A brilliant engineer, he is perhaps the only modern architect who does not use computer programs at the project preparation stage. Like a master of the classical era, he makes a lot of preparatory drawings, sketches, sketches, before he finds an image of the future structure that matches his idea. At this initial stage, Calatrava works as a sculptor, fantasizes, relying on his knowledge of the anatomy of the human body, which for him, as for many masters of the classical era, is a model of harmony created by nature. In public lectures, he often recalls his passion for Michelangelo and Renaissance artists: “In my youth, I studied the old masters a lot. Looking at their ingenious sketches of human figures, I suddenly realized that architecture is somehow mysteriously connected with the elements of the human body. I even made a small copper sculpture - a schematic representation of the eye. The sharp brow ridge and the “spools” of the eyes underneath looked like a real architectural project. I took note of that too."

All projects and buildings of Santiago Calatrava have a number of distinctive qualities that are characteristic of his work. He has several favorite tricks, which vary in each new work. Calatrava, on the one hand, is a characteristic representative of the world community of modern innovative architects, but at the same time he is very national. In his works, one can feel the continuation of the traditions of the refined and original Spanish architectural school of the late XIX-XX centuries. The master himself refers to the followers of the cult figures of the Spanish school of engineering and architecture - Antonio Gaudi and Felix Candela. Calatrava is also often called the heir to the traditions of the famous Italian engineer and architect of the 20th century, Paolo Nervi, nicknamed "the poet of reinforced concrete." The work of the famous master of the beginning of the last century, Gaudi, became the basis for the romantic architectural fantasies of Calatrava, and the constructions of Nervi and Candela taught him to combine bold artistic ideas with mathematical calculation, to look for new materials necessary to embody the most seemingly unrealistic ideas. Nervi began to use reinforced concrete to give lightness to large volumes, Candela was a remarkable mathematician who managed in the 1950s to create expressive curved, curvilinear complex geometric structures that had not previously been used in building practice. Of the great European masters of the 20th century, Calatrava distinguished primarily Le Corbusier, who, like him, was not only an architect, but also an artist. Because of the desire to express himself creatively in every project, as an artist, Calatrava often runs the risk of going beyond the possibilities of architecture, but it is precisely because of his willingness to take risks that he often comes up with fundamentally new solutions that enrich the figurative language of his buildings.

Thus, the individual style of the Spanish architect, in which emotional, dynamic forms reminiscent of expressive futuristic sculpture, are built on the basis of strict engineering calculations, is easily recognizable. The master is considered one of the brightest modern representatives the so-called bioteka, or inorganic architecture. In bioteka, many expressive elements resemble natural forms: the structure of the body of a person or animal, the structure of stones, mountains, trees. Many elements of theory and practice come from bionics - applied science, in which to solve complex technical tasks the laws of nature are used. It is known that back in the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci, creating a model aircraft, watched the flight of birds and studied the structure of their muscles. The task of combining natural natural forms, which are dominated by dynamic curvilinear forms, and strictly organized, mathematically verified, utilitarian reliable details is one of the most difficult in modern architecture. Many famous masters work in this style, but often their bold and promising projects remain on paper due to the high cost and complexity of execution. Only a few managed to fully realize their ideas, among them the most famous are, apart from Santiago Calatrava, the Englishmen Nicholas Grimshaw and Norman Foster.

Santiago Calatrava Valls was born on July 28, 1951 in Valencia. His first passion was painting, which he began to study at the age of eight at an art school. In 1969, Santiago entered the Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, graduating in 1974. His thesis was devoted to the development of the city. Soon the young man went to Zurich, where he studied at the Federal Institute of Technology until 1979; there he received a degree in civil engineering and a doctoral dissertation. In the Swiss capital, the young man opened the first architectural studio. At the same time, Calatrava never left serious studies in painting, sculpture and drawing, constantly improving his skills. Since the mid-1980s, he has received several commissions to design railway stations and bridges. During this period, the first significant success of the young architect also falls: Calatrava won a prestigious competition for the reconstruction of the Zurich Stadelhofen railway station. The renovated station attracted the attention of the professional architectural community. The little-known author of the project managed to create a very organic and elegant structure in terms of the selection of materials and high artistic quality of details, in which the smooth curved outlines of concrete interiors contrasted expressively with the dark rectilinear metal structures of the platform canopies. Since then, railway stations have become one of the favorite topics of the architect and his calling card. According to his designs, several more railway stations were soon built. Unfortunately, the beautiful, highly artistic design of the station in Spandau (Berlin), which won first place in the competition, was not realized due to disagreements with the municipality. Similar situations often happened and happen in the practice of Calatrava and other no less famous modern architects. Subsequently, the exquisite motif of openwork ceilings for the Spandau station, reminiscent of tree crowns, was used by the architect in other completed projects.

In the 1990s, success came to Calatrava, he became a recognized architect of international level. A very bright and unusual project for the reconstruction of the Reichstag in Berlin, unfortunately, remained unfulfilled. He took third place at the 1993 competition, but, nevertheless, is one of the significant works of the master. The main focus of the project - a tall, transparent, expanding dome - looks weightless, as if hovering over the heavy architectural forms of the Reichstag, emphasizing their power. The idea for such a dome was so good that Norman Foster's winning team changed the original, tougher and more radical version and inserted this romantic detail into it.

Calatrava, being an extremely gifted engineer, comes up with his "ribbed" designs based on the characteristics of their tectonic capabilities, which is why, when completed, his work looks so harmonious and attractive. Purely functional solutions appear to an architect under the influence of real associations. When he was working on his first serious project, a railway station in Zurich, the skeleton of a dog given to him by a veterinary student he knew served as the basis for the figurative solution. The system of the spine as the main support to which the rows of ribs are attached has become Starting point to create many architectural structures craftsmen: from buildings for various purposes to bridges. From 1989 to 1994, the construction of one of the most famous projects of Calatrava continued - the railway station of Saint-Exupery Airport in Lyon (). Here, for the first time, the architect created a supporting structure resembling a bird's skeleton: the roof of the main vestibule seems to be made up of two wings, their connection falls on the central axis, resembling a curved ridge. This very simple, but new and effective solution became a distinctive feature of Calatrava's style and was developed in his other buildings.

Naturally, the birthplace of the architect could not help ordering several landmark projects for his famous son. Before the opening of summer Olympic Games 1992 in Barcelona and the World Expo 92 in Seville, the Montjuic Telecommunications Tower in Barcelona and the Alamillo Bridge in Seville were built. Montjuic has become one of the symbols of the Olympic Barcelona, ​​as well as milestone in a career as an architect. Calatrava showed himself not only as a major architect and engineer, but also as a sculptor. The tower on the hill of Montjuic, dazzling white, dynamic, balancing on the verge of stability, looks like a beautiful exotic flower that has adorned the city. The slope of the main vertical gives it an additional charge of movement. Like the majestic Gaudí Cathedral (Sagrada Familia), it can be seen from any part of Barcelona. In the semicircular crown at the top of the tower are round halls for receptions and meetings, from here a wonderful view of the city opens. The construction to this day is one of the most striking, emotional and poetic monuments of modern urban architecture. It showed best qualities Calatrava is an artist for whom the figurative side of an object means no less than technical perfection.

The Alamillo Bridge consists of a single support that balances the 200-meter long crossing with 13 "strings". It was built to communicate with the island of La Cartuja, where the pavilions of Expo-92 were located. Interestingly, it was originally planned to build two symmetrical bridges on both sides of the island.

According to this principle, a pavilion project was erected for Expo 92 in Seville. The pavilion resembles a tent made of wooden ribs, which, thanks to an ingenious mechanism built into the base, can either close or open like moving fingers. Depending on the position of the arches, the pavilion turned into a closed shell, a Bedouin tent or an Arabian traditional boat.

The snow-white Alamillo Bridge across the Guadalquivir River in Seville became Calatrava's new success, which glorified the name of the architect. This structure, captivating with its engineering virtuosity, fine drawing of rhythmic lines-cables and perfect proportions, vaguely resembles a gigantic and proportionately proportioned musical instrument. For the beauty of the lines and the overall harmony of the idea, he was often compared to the music of Mozart.

Bridges are a favorite area in architecture for Calatrava. All the best qualities of his talent were embodied in these beautiful dynamic forms, as if charged with energy. They look like outlandish flowers or other natural forms. Calatrava bridges often give the impression of monumental musical instruments or abstract sculptures. The master himself believes that architecture is the highest form of art, but emphasizes that architecture, sculpture and painting are inseparable for him: “I have more than a system of views and concepts of an architect; I have ideas of a painter and a sculptor... I am an engineer, an architect who aspires to work as a sculptor. So, I spend part of the day studying, among other things, the works of Constantin Brancusi, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, Paul Klee ... "

Already his early work - the bridge of Philip II (Bach de Roda) 140 meters long in Barcelona, ​​completed in 1987, has become a kind of symbol of the author's high engineering art. According to the Calatrava project, exquisite bridges are also being built in Mérida (Spain) and Bordeaux (France). In subsequent years, more than a dozen pedestrian and road bridges were built in Spain.

There are two Calatrava bridges in Dublin, the capital of Ireland: in 2003, a small arched pedestrian bridge appeared, named after the writer James Joyce; another bridge named after playwright Samuel Beckett was opened in 2009. It is on the River Liffey next to the old harbour. In order to maintain the ability to navigate the canal, Calatrava came up with a special swivel mechanism that allows the bridge span to be rotated 90 degrees.

The creation of the Spanish architect was not lost among the countless bridges and canals of beautiful and romantic Venice. The Constitution Bridge, opened in 2008, is the fourth bridge on the Grande Canal and the first completely modern structure of its kind in the Old City. Its architecture is extremely laconic and restrained. The decoration used traditional Venice white stone and tempered greenish glass. The inner ribbed side of the bridge is illuminated with red light, which creates an unusually beautiful and subtle color chord in the overall symphony of colors of the city.

Three bridges over the Hoofdwart canal in Holland, built in 2004 by order of the municipality of the northern Dutch district of Haarlemmermeer, are very organically inscribed in a flat landscape. They are located on the site of a bay drained in the 19th century. "Lyre", "Harp" and "Lute" - that's what they called locals parts of this harmonious ensemble. All three projects are based on variations of the same technique: the strings that support the structure of the cables are fixed on a “mast” of pylons placed at different angles. Bridges perfectly emphasize the flat, flat environment, becoming artistic objects that organize the space.

The first pedestrian string suspension bridge "David's Harp" in Jerusalem was built according to the design of Calatrava in 2006. In order to provide residents with maximum convenience in the transition to the narrow, winding streets of the city, it has several exits, reminiscent of the shape English letter Y. An inclined supporting mast, installed at the junction of the "horns", and the bridge deck balance each other with 31 steel strings stretched between the mast and bridge segments. The structure is made of steel and glass, and at night it is illuminated by color-changing spotlights.

The construction of many Calatrava facilities, due to the great complexity of the projects and the high cost of the materials used, is delayed for long years. However, despite a number of problems with exploitation, all the architectural works of the master make such a strong emotional and aesthetic impression that they become the center and artistic "sign" of the place, attracting many people. The knowledge of the engineer helps the architect to build bizarre, dynamic buildings, the details of which are reminiscent of natural forms: they are like birds, flowers, trees. In this, Calatrava resembles his famous predecessor, Antonio Gaudí. Speaking about his attitude to the process of creating an architectural image, he emphasizes the main thing: “My approach to certain formal aspects can be reminiscent of architectural icons such as Gaudí. I design myself, my dreams, my knowledge, my personal research work.”

One of the symbols of Calatrava's work in the early 2000s was the Olympic Stadium in Athens.

Perhaps the most grandiose and ambitious of the implemented projects of Calatrava is the architectural ensemble "City of Arts and Sciences", located in a park on the banks of the drained bed of the Turia River in Valencia. Due to the fact that the project was funded by the provincial government, it was completed in an extremely short period of time (1991-2000) and is considered the most complete and thoughtful ensemble in modern architecture. By creating it, Calatrava finally got the opportunity to be free and create like an artist. The "City of Arts and Sciences" is a kind of gift from the architect to his native country, its nature, in which he constantly draws inspiration.

After resounding success in the early 1990s in Europe, Calatrava was invited to the US and Canada, where he completed several significant projects. Unfortunately, not all of them were implemented. In particular, the unusually stylish and graceful project for the reconstruction of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in New York, created in 1991, has remained a beautiful model. The construction of the church, which was to become the largest Anglican cathedral in the world, began in late XIX century, but even in the 1970s, attempts continued to reconstruct and complete it. Calatrava proposed to make the roof and spire transparent: thin glazed metal and concrete structures would greatly decorate and ennoble the heavy facade. In addition, the architect planned to arrange a winter garden and greenhouses on the roof, his own climate control system, rotating ceiling elements and other interesting and innovative engineering systems.

Many unusual ideas Calatrava managed to realize it while working on the Quadracci Pavilion, part of the Milwaukee Art Museum (Wisconsin, USA) in 2001. This project was the first construction of Calatrava in the United States. The Milwaukee Museum of Art is renowned for its valuable collection of Western European and American painting, sculpture, and applied arts. The main building of the museum was designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen in 1957. The Calatrava Pavilion is the museum's new entrance area. Being high-tech modern structure, it fits perfectly into nature, resembling a gigantic bird. Distinctive feature buildings - "wings", with a span of 66 meters, which fold in adverse weather and open in sunny days thereby controlling the room temperature. The 'brise-soleil' wings are an architectural term coined to describe Le Corbusier's invention of solar awnings on glazed façades and have become a symbol of the state of Wisconsin. The sight of these moving structures is mesmerizing, giving rise to associations with science fiction films. For the Quadracci pavilion, Calatrava has received many prestigious architectural and engineering awards.

The pavilion is named after patrons Betty and Harry Quadracci, who donated $10 million to the museum. Each wing of the pavilion consists of 136 ribs ranging in length from 8 to 32 meters. The total weight of the structure is 115 tons

Almost all the outstanding buildings of Calatrava of the late XX - the first decade of the XXI century are controversial: they are admired, they are scolded, they are denied, but they still remain sights, centers of the new urban space, places of attraction for tourists and architecture lovers. Calatrava knows how to use the possibilities of new technologies very well: this dreamer artist always knows exactly which of the achievements of technology will help him in the implementation of new projects. Therefore, orders for his projects do not stop.

Built in 1998, the Oriente station in Lisbon is still a model for later developments and variations. Its architectural solution delights, awakens the imagination, attracts with many interesting creative finds. The newly built station in Liege and the station in Mons () amaze and surprise contemporaries with new techniques and unusual fantasies of the author. Calatrava is constantly looking for new solutions to be implemented in the future. In Rio de Janeiro, he is already building a Museum tomorrow, its opening is planned for the beginning of the 2016 Olympics. There are several more projects in the pipeline. The future for Calatrava is connected with the opportunity to work, which for him is tantamount to the word "create". As the master himself said: “There is such a Greek word “tekton”, which means “worker”. And there is the word "tekne" - art. That is, the Greeks equated art with work, craft. And this is a very deep parallel. The Greeks believed that if a person (any!) does his job well, then art is obtained. In addition, all these words are cognate with the word “technique”. This means that technology (engineering) is deeply related to both work and art. "Tektonis" can do "tekne". That is, God is inside a person, inside us, and this thought makes me cry.”

Valencian Santiago Calatrava is an amazing architect. Nobody criticizes his work, his colleagues admire him, his buildings are adored by the public, far from architecture. Today, 67-year-old architect Santiago Calatrava (b. 28.07. 1951) is famous all over the world. Wherever he erects snow-white openwork buildings-mirages, glorifying his native Spain - in Canada, China, the USA, Sweden, Venice and so on.

Masterpiece modern architecture- The Auditorio de Tenerife Opera House is one of the most famous buildings in Spain and attractions canary islands. 2003.

Calatrava was born under a lucky star: almost all of his creative life from the late 1970s to the 2010s, he builds, as he sees it, while his work is in demand and highly appreciated. He studied painting, drawing and architecture in his native Valencia, then received a serious engineering education in Zurich. There he began his own architectural practice, and so far more of his buildings have been realized in Switzerland than anywhere else.

Bridge project in Denver, part of the South Terminal Redevelopment program for international airport in Denver (DIA). 2016.

Calatrava designed a lot for America. Milwaukee is proud of the front pavilion of the Museum of Art with opening sunbursts, New York is a transfer station to Ground Zero, the site was created on the site of the tragically destroyed towers of the World shopping center. Chicago - a giant white "drill" Chicago Spire. The skyscraper with a height of 610 meters is recognized as the tallest residential building in the United States.

Americans not only love Calatrava, they arrange museum exhibitions for him and think hard about his work. Each time they compare Calatrava with. Both architects produce very spectacular forms that have a strong effect. But Gehry, with his swirling titanium bands, is busy with the "skin" of the building, its shell. Whereas Calatrava focuses on the "skeleton". The ribs, joints and tendons of his designs are incredibly artistic.

Turning Torso Skyscraper, Malmö, Sweden. 1999–2004

Baroque theatrical architect, as many researchers call him, the master does not limit himself to engineering needs, you will not find any “form follows function” in Calatrava’s opuses in the afternoon with fire. Since student years the main laboratory for the development of the form was for him the drawing of the nude. This is his know-how - to explore anatomy, to see how all the "mechanisms" of the human body work in motion and to transfer observations into an architectural volume. The building that students of architectural schools from all over the world go to see is a skyscraper in the Swedish city of Malmö, which is called “Turning Torso”.

Eastern Station in Lisbon, Portugal. 1993–1998

The archives of Santiago Calatrava contain hundreds of watercolors of kneeling figures, tumbling athletes and squirming beauties. Another characteristic element is the wing. Flying wing bridges built in different time in Buenos Aires, Barcelona, ​​Seville, Bilbao - a special theme for the architect. Clouds shine through light openwork structures. Bridges, like almost all the buildings of Calatrava, have White color and forced to look at the sky. The optimal position of its buildings is above the water. Calatrava hovers above the bustle of the city in dialogue with the universe.

Polytechnic University, Center for Innovation, Science and Technology Building Campus, Florida, USA. 2014. Together with Festina Lente LLC.

Museum of Science and Technology. City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia. An architectural complex of five structures on the drained bottom of the Turia River. 1991-2005.

L "Hemisfèric - IMAX cinema, planetarium, laser theater. City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia. 1991-2005.

inspiration, study of the landscape, technical solutions, steel and concrete are the main components of the magnificent and functional structures created by the legendary architect, whose structures are impossible to forget once you see them. This is Santiago Calatrava. His works have been realized in Spain, Switzerland, America, Canada. The creations of this man are special, recognizable all over the world and scandalous. Calatrava revives any place, making it more beautiful and more functional. gained recognition for its futuristic style, technical innovation and aesthetics in the buildings it designs and builds.

Santiago Calatrava: biography

Not far from Valencia, on July 28, 1951, the future builder of bridges, train stations, theaters and other structures that amaze with their unusual appearance was born. Santiago's father's profession, although it was focused on commercial activity, but he loved art and wanted to instill an artistic and creative perception of the world in his son. Yes, in early age the boy visited the Prado Museum and began to show interest in drawing and sculpture. At the age of eight, Santiago Calatrava was already drawing landmarks on whatman paper at an art school in Valencia.

The turbulent years in Spain determined the further education outside the native state. At the age of 13, the parents made their son travel to Paris on a student exchange program, where he was imbued with the grandeur of the architecture of this beautiful city. The next step in getting a profession was training in Polytechnic University Valencia, from which Santiago Calatrava graduated in 1973. Two years later, the guy left for Switzerland, where he continued to study his favorite business in the field of construction, but as an engineer. Santiago studied at the Zurich University of Technology for four years. By 1981 he became a doctor and founder of an architecture and construction studio in Switzerland.

First works and recognition

One of the first projects that brought international recognition Santiago was Train Station(Stadelhofen) in Zurich. Although glimpses of architectural imagination appeared in Santiago in graduate school. With his scientific colleagues, he designed and built the pool. But it was not quite a simple implementation; it allowed passers-by to watch the swimmers from below.

The projects of Santiago Calatrava in 1986 were supplemented by a new developed plan for the implementation of a reinforced concrete bridge for automobile purposes in his native Valencia. And a year later, the young specialist received an award for this work. International Union architects.

In 1989, Calatrava, with his work, entered the conquest of the French construction market. At the same time, he opened his studio in Paris and designed the railway station of Lyon. Santiago Calatrava opened an architecture and construction office in Valencia in 1991.

Olympic Games

Countries that host international sports competitions, as a rule, always try to welcome guests at their true worth, surprise visitors with architectural structures and organization of the holiday. Therefore, in all years the best specialists involved in the preparation of the Olympic Games. In 1992, summer sports were held in Barcelona and required a telecommunications tower to broadcast them. Of course, the architect Santiago Calatrava was chosen by the government as a specialist for the construction of a facility in an iconic place in the country.

In three years, a 136-meter tower was erected. The idea of ​​Calatrava was to create a structure in the form of an athlete with a torch in his hand. Her uniqueness didn't end there. The spire is a kind of clock hand, which falls like a shadow on the base of the TV tower, thereby showing the time.

The 1992 Summer Olympics is not the only sporting event where the Spanish creator left an imprint of his work. In 2004, Santiago Calatrava was invited to renovate the Athens Sports Complex.

Movement is the basis of the architect's work

In the implemented projects of the architect, his attraction to the improvement of the transport system and the movement of people can be traced. But among the works of the master, one cannot fail to note a residential skyscraper in Malmö. The Clauses of Santiago Calatrava, which became the basis for the creation of an extraordinary house, consisted of the idea of ​​movement. In one of his lectures at the Moscow Institute, Santiago said: "Architecture exists for people, and human bodies influence architecture in terms of proportion, rhythm and size."

The building consists of nine pentagon segments, each of which has five floors. Each segment is twisted in relation to the previous one, and the last retinue is 90 degrees relative to the first. The building was under construction for four years. In 2005, the 190-meter tower was officially opened. To this day, it is one of the main attractions of Sweden and the second tallest building in Europe.

The beginning of the 21st century: entering a new continent

In 2001, in the state of Wisconsin, near the existing complex of the Museum of Art, the third pavilion of Quadracci was erected. Vaulted ceilings, a movable sun visor resembling the wingspan of a bird are the main Constructive decisions buildings designed by a genius like Santiago Calatrava. The photo of the dynamic structure impresses with its aesthetics and attracts crowds of tourists to Lake Michigan. The glass vestibule of the pavilion has the shape of a parabola. All the buildings of the Calatrava Museum connected into a single complex complex network pedestrian bridges.

Another attraction, only already in South America, was realized in 2001 on the idea of ​​a Spanish architect. It became the Bridge of the Woman. The engineering invention consisted in the mobility of the central part of the bridge for the passage of large ships. According to the creator, local music inspired him to build this structure. And the architect embodied the heard rhythms in the creation of a bridge in Buenos Aires.

"City of Arts and Sciences"

Engineering inventions of Santiago Calatrava could not be ignored home country. Not far from Valencia, on an area of ​​350,000 m 2 , there is a unique complex dedicated to cultural and scientific development. The first elements of the "city" were: a planetarium, a cinema and a theater of laser performances. In 2000, a science museum was opened, as well as a landscaped park. After some time, the opening of the largest aquarium in Europe in the form of a water lily took place. The work belonged to Felix Candela, an architect who was involved in parallel with Calatrava in the construction of a landmark in Valencia. The last building of the "city" was the opera house. The architectural complex is designed to familiarize a person with various aspects of art, nature, science and technology.

At night, when the light comes from inside the buildings and it is dark around, all these creations resemble animal skeletons.

Criticism

Santiago's projects are not only recognizable, but also expensive. Moreover, the final price of the work exceeds the initial estimate, and there are disputes over the timing of the implementation. In recent years, Calatrava's buildings have been the center of a scandal.

The City of Arts and Sciences cost €900 million, three times the original budget. In the buildings of the complex, when it was put into operation, there were no emergency exits and fire escapes, although later the errors were eliminated by Santiago, but at the expense of public funds.

Engineer Santiago Calatrava, creating the airport terminal in Bilbao, did not take into account throughput structures. Therefore, passengers who passed customs control were forced to wait outside to receive their luggage. In 2000, the airport was also subject to miscalculation.

The Subisuri Bridge, paved with glass slabs, in rainy weather turned out to be a dangerous place. The Constitution Bridge in Venice has also been criticized. The reasons were not only the timing and the cost of the project exceeding three times, but also the functionality. It lacks ramps and is too steep, making it difficult for older people to get around.

Train station in New York

Construction of an underground high-speed station railway in New York, on the site of the twin towers, it is also carried out according to the designs of Calatrava. The design of the structure above the zero mark resembles a bird freed from the hands of a child. Inside there are subways, stations, the walls of which are made of marble. Completion is scheduled for 2016 at a cost of $4 billion, although the initial budget for construction was $1.9 billion.

Conclusion

In response to criticism, one can say in defense of the architect that his current clients are repeat buyers. “The task of my buildings is to make unique cities and enrich the human experience,” said Santiago Calatrava. Sightseeing is his calling. It would seem, what can surprise the development and implementation of vital architectural objects, such as bridges, stations? The works created by the Spanish creator become buildings, architectural monuments, structures that deserve attention.