140 LIGHT + TECH


IT IS POSSIBLE to approach Santiago Calatrava’s work from a number of perspectives: the sculptural quality of his structures; his use of the human and other natural shapes as a basis for architectural form; the movement, actual and suggested, of his buildings; the way in which he resolves into one the roles of architect, engineer and artist. However, looking through a new monograph on his work by Philip Jodidio, published by Taschen, the role that light plays is also striking. While architects such as Louis


Kahn, Le Corbusier and Aalto, and in their footsteps Leiviskä, Holl, Liebeskind, Zumthor, Nouvel, Ando and others have always talked powerfully about the role of light in architecture, in Calatrava it is there almost as a subtext, an element so vital it is almost taken for granted. The power of the relationship between


light and architecture was certainly evident to him at an early stage of his career when he experienced some sort of epiphany in Paris. Born in Valencia in 1951, he left Spain


for Paris in 1968 with the aim (in fact unfulfilled) of studying at the École des Beaux-Arts. ‘I visited Notre Dame one morning,’ he recalls. ‘The light was streaming through the windows on the south side of the building and it was the first time I realised how sublime architecture could be, and how it can reach levels of expression that move your heart.’ Jodidio points out that Calatrava, with


his structures rooted firmly in art, also traces back Le Corbusier’s famous link between light and architecture to art. ‘When Le Corbusier wrote, “Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light” in 1923, how many people knew that he was borrowing from the thought of the sculptor Auguste Rodin?,’ he quotes Calatrava as saying. ‘In 1914, in his book Les Cathédrales de France, Rodin wrote: “The sculptor only attains great expression when he gives all his attention to the harmonic play of light and shadow, just as the architect does.” The fact that one of the most famous phrases of modern architecture was inspired not by an architect but by a sculptor underlines the significance of art.’ The following projects taken from the monograph are among those that overtly play with, manipulate and exploit light or solar energy. ‘I am always searching for more light and space,’ says Calatrava.


WORLD TRADE CENTER TRANSPORTATION HUB, NEW YORK


Complex, politically sensitive (in the middle of the Ground Zero area) and courted by controversy throughout its prolonged construction, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub nevertheless exemplifies Calatrava’s


work and eventually won converts from its many dissenters.


On its opening in 2016, Brooklyn-based writer and former architect Jimmy Stamp, fully disposed to be highly critical, described it in The Guardian as ‘a light-filled cathedral of commerce and commuting’. Close up, the design was ‘confounding’, he said. ‘Light floods onto its sumptuous grey and white marble floors. It feels vast. It feels


Calatrava: Complete Works 1979-Today


Author: Philip Jodidio Publisher: Taschen


Multilingual edition: English, French and German


ISBN: 978-3-8365-8709-9 Price: £200


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157