DSomeday you will miss that old white man. It became clear every day that this type was not only responsible for all the grievances in the world, but also put some successful things into it with his overbearing. But it’s not that far. This is bad news for people like Santiago Calatrava. For the luxurious enhancement of concrete and steel he designed, the last hour must have sounded. At least in his European hometown, where concrete has recently become a devil’s thing for ecological reasons.
Like the renovation project of the Olympic Stadium in Athens, where 85% of the steel is used to carry the weight of the roof, it turns out that the roof is too narrow and hardly justified. His bold arches for stadiums, train stations, airports, bridges, and concert halls sometimes explore the limits of static viability, even for the most important living magician among civil engineers, wood is difficult.
However, the rest of the world is large, where there are more and more steel and concrete buildings, which are not affected by local concerns. In fact, when looking at Calatrava’s project list, it is clear that the restlessness in Asia and the Arab world is increasing, and the ruler of its brand awareness can always deal with various architectural anomalies. For example, in Dubai, he plans to build an extremely narrow tower, supported by a steel cable network, and its height may reach a world record.
The buildings built by Calatrava are almost all in Western countries, which can be described as impeccable democracies, neither popular nor popular. Gerhard Schroeder is called. As for the reasons for his long absence from China, Russia and the Arab world, one can only speculate. Symmetry has always been a sure sign, and it appears mainly in broken form in Calatrava. Most of his buildings are places of encounter and movement, and they also exude an existential tension: their bright appearance and life-affirming vitality convey optimism, but the exposed buildings are often enough to remind people of skeletons, but they always show Bold and fragile souvenirs.
At the same time, it has biological form and technology, repeats and filaments in details, but is lonely and immortal in the overall picture-these ambivalences make Calatrava’s design so attractive. Compared with the buildings of all other world architectural stars, the buildings of the Spaniards who now mainly live in Zurich and New York are more recognizable by everyone. This also contributed to its immense popularity (and jealous rejection among colleagues).
However, the most important thing is that the popularity among the laymen is also shared by some critics reluctantly to a certain extent, which can be explained by the associated quotes they provide. In front of every building in Calatrava, viewers feel encouraged to look for analogies in his painting memory. Take the Palau de les Arts, the huge opera house in his hometown of Valencia, for example. It is the core of the “City of Science and Art” he designed. Depending on the angle of view, it looks like an eye, a helmet, a whale, a beetle, or an ocean liner. This is how you ensure that your buildings stay connected. Enter the picture: The photogenic building in Calatrava is a pilgrimage site for amateur photographers who have increased the author’s visibility on Instagram and other platforms.
In Germany, compared with other countries, it is more difficult to deal with large-scale performances and overwhelming buildings, and Calatrava rarely appears. He had to watch Norman Foster, with the support of politicians, use his competition idea to add a glass dome to the Reichstag. It can be said that as a consolation prize, Calatrava received an order to build Kronprinzenbrücke near the carnival. With an elegant building, he was able to prove to critics that he can also master small shapes—at least in principle, the building has weaknesses in practice. The structure is very fragile, and it must be protected with an ugly protective cover to prevent the fatal effects that the hiking boat may have. The other details of the bridge magically attracted vandals, which made maintenance costs high.
The extent to which architects are accused of improper use of their work is an old argument. In any case, there are many legal disputes that Calatrava must fight with his clients. Some of them can be traced back to the fact that visual effects are the most important for architects. The glass floor of a bridge in Bilbao must be slip-resistant with rubber mats. However, many allegations can confidently be attributed to the usual “blame game” among many construction workers, in which architects always have bad cards. So many test engineers, controllers and process optimizers have participated in large-scale projects, especially when costs are out of control and structural defects are ignored, it is mainly their failures. Anyone who hires a master like Calatrava must make sure that he puts the right craftsman by his side.
The reassuring and confident optimist Calatrava has decided to let these allegations quell. The continued success proves that he is right. Today, Calatrava celebrates its seventieth birthday.
