Calatrava, Santiago
Calatrava, Santiago
Bio Sketch
Santiago Calatrava (b. 1951) is a Spanish architect and engineer known for dramatic, sculptural structural forms (bridges, stations, civic monuments). His ambitious public projects (including the City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia; the L'Oceanogràfic; and the Bilbao airport) have frequently become emblematic of iconic/spectacular architecture and have often drawn criticism for cost overruns and maintenance problems. Note: this page began as a stub derived from a single news item and remains under-developed; fuller treatment is needed.
Key Works
- City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia — an enormous public cultural complex, cited as one of the largest such investments in Spain (reported ~1.3 billion euros).
- Bilbao Airport (1990–2000) — cited as an "on-budget" star-architect contribution to the Bilbao regeneration package (Michael 2015).
Key Concepts
Concepts associated with this author that have pages in this wiki:
Relevance to Geoffrey's Research
Calatrava is relevant to Geoffrey's spectacle & iconic architecture area. His City of Arts and Sciences is a primary example of the monumental, publicly funded iconic project that an economic-crisis news item juxtaposes with the Eisenman Cidade da Cultura — useful for analyzing the icon's cost and its promised "Bilbao effect." His sculptural "wave" forms are also a recurring instance of Jencks's "enigmatic signifier" (see Sudjic & Jencks 2005).
Source Support
Source notes in this wiki that discuss this author:
- Spain Halts Eisenman's City of Culture in Santiago — the City of Arts and Sciences as a comparative over-budget public icon.
- Can We Still Believe in Iconic Buildings? (Sudjic & Jencks 2005) — "Calatrava's wave" as an example of the enigmatic signifier.
- The Bilbao Effect: Is "Starchitecture" All It's Cracked Up to Be? (Michael 2015) — the Bilbao airport as an on-budget star contribution.