Calatrava is
much more than
his profession.
- The tower
at Dubai Creek
Harbour by
Santiago.
- The tower
rendered in
watercolour.
and hotels, all linked to the
Thames by a new land bridge.
Bridging Spaces
With over 50 monumental
bridges to his name, Calatrava
identifies the unique challenges
that come with bridge building,
and how they form an integral
part of the landscape. He says:
“We must think of the fact
that bridges, while being an
urban piece of work, serve a
very important purpose: They
are able to connect places,
and frequently integrate
urban spaces within cities
themselves. This is no reason
for them not to be beautiful.
“Think about, for example,
cities like Paris or London,
and what they would be like
without their bridges. They
would probably be other cities.
I’ve had this fact very clear
in some of my projects. It has
happened in Valencia, where
the interventions that we have
carried out farther than the
City of Arts and Sciences have
contributed to integrating
city areas, rather than have
them separated. The same has
happened in Dallas, where the
structures we built have not
only played a fundamental role
in the betterment of access and
circulation, but also allowed for
connection between shores.”
Thinking Big
Born in 1951 in Valencia,
Spain, and passionate about
drawing, Calatrava would
likely have become an artist
if he hadn’t discovered the
works of Le Corbusier when
he went to Paris to study fine
arts – only to find his school
closed due to the civil unrest
that rocked the city in 1968.
After studying architecture
at the Polytechnic University
of Valencia in 1974 and taking
a postgraduate course
in urbanism, he pursued
civil engineering at the
Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology (ETH) in
Zurich to explore building
construction, with the aim of
overcoming the boundaries
of architectural convention.
In 1981, he earned a
doctorate for a thesis entitled
“Concerning the Foldability
of Space Frames”, which
investigated how, through
2
4
3
- The Peninsula
Place in
Greenwich
Peninsula
cultural district
is London’s
single largest
redevelopment.
- Spanish
architect
Santiago
