Synopses & Reviews
“The definitive study of the great Spanish architect whose soaring work is allabout openness, energy and aspiration.” -
Met Home Spanish-born architect Santiago Calatrava has achieved considerable international acclaim with his breathtaking feats of architecture and engineering in the service of elegant and humanistic modern forms. This updated volume comprehensively examines this contemporary masters career, including the architects furniture designs, sculpture, and drawings. His spectacular cultural and civic projects have secured Calatravas place in the pantheon of world-class 21st-century architects. Among these are the Athens Olympics Sports Complex; the Tenerife Concert Hall in the Spanish Canary Islands; the Valencia Science Museum, Planetarium, and Opera House, and the much-anticipated World Trade Center Transportation Hub. This newest edition introduces Calatravas latest triumphs, including the expressive Turning Torso tower in Sweden and the Chicago Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the US when built. A catalogue raisonne, detailed biography, and bibliography complete this comprehensive monograph.
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
Very few designers of this century-- a century dominated by specialization and fragmentation-- can be called universal, but Santiago Calatrava is one of these few. In his numerous buildings, engineering projects, sculptures, and furniture designs, this Spanish architect whose practice is based in Switzerland has developed a unique poetics of morphology that overlaps structure and movement.
Combining art and science, technology and architecture, Calatrava's bridges and buildings create a sublime elegance in their urban contexts. With dynamic curves, leaning vertical elements, and mechanically operable roofs, they embody potential motion. In this book, Alexander Tzonis explores Calatrava's "poetics of movement" not only in the architect's large-scale work, but also in his drawings and sculptures.
The book features thirty-five projects, fully documented with photographs, drawings, and sketches. Included are Calatrava's most recent works-- the Milwaukee Art Museum Addition and the Orient Station in Lisbon-- and his best known, from the Montjuic Tower to the Alameda Bridge.
About the Author
Alexander Tzonis is professor of architectural theory at the Technical University of Delft. He is the author of
Santiago Calatrava: The Complete Works, published by Rizzoli, and
Santiago Calatrava: The Bridges,
Santiago Calatrava: The Poetics of Movement, and
Le Corbusier: The Poetics of Machine and Metaphor, all published by Universe.
From the Hardcover edition.