week 2 : santiago calatrava
Santiago Calatrava’s design philosophy is that Architecture is a form of Art. His design philosophy is strongly influenced by his education path. He came from an art school, moving on to Architecture and then Engineering.
Calatrava sees Architecture as a combination of Engineering and Art, as a way to express himself in a built environment sector. His works unite both spanish architecture and civil engineering, creating abstract and complex forms. Majority of his works are based on analysing human and living organisms, as well as sculptures.
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His influences in the different sectors have created a unique style, buildings that are abstract and complex, relying heavily on form. However, this conflicts with my personal design philosophy. The emotions the user feels when they are in the space should be the most important, be it the feeling of happiness, nostalgia or safety. When looking at some of Calatrava’s work, I feel that he neglects some of these factors and instead focuses on the overall form of the space, instead of putting the user as the priority.
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One example of his project which focused on form more is the Ponte Della Costituzione bridge design in Venice. Completed in 2008, the 94-metre-long bridge was the fourth to be built over Venice's Grand Canal since the 16th century, however, it has been controversial since it opened.
The bridge, which is located near the main train station, was initially criticised for the lack of wheelchair access, although Calatrava had initially proposed incorporating a stairlift in his design.
Furthermore, the nature of the materials used to construct the bridge was not practical. Apart from the over budget construction cost, the maintenance of the tempered glass and stainless steel bridge was extremely costly. The properties of these materials also meant that the bridge was extremely slippery when it rained which was a huge problem.
With all these factors combined, the Italian government made the decision to sue him due to his negligence in the design, but he rejected the accusation.
Another example is the Ysios Winery located in La Rioja, Northern Spain. Calatrava designed and built a spectacular roof for the winery. However a dozen years after he has built the building, it still suffers from leaking roofs. This was extremely detrimental to the company as in a winery, the most important factors are temperature and humidity. Even though he designed a beautiful complex, it failed to have the basic necessities down for the winery, ultimately putting form over function.
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The owners of the winery are fed up with the botched attempts of Calatrava's original builders at fixing the roof and want money from them so that it can bring in fresh architects and engineers to design a new one.