[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Santiago Calatrava
Spain's greatest living architect, Calatrava's work can be found in locations all over the world from Athens to Milwaukee. His bold designs and organic style have earned him the reputation as one of the best in the industry.
Introduction:
Architect, artist, and engineer Santiago Calatrava was born on July 28, 1951, in the town of Benimamet, near Valencia, Spain. His background was eclectic. Calatrava is an aristocratic name, passed down from a medieval order of knights; and Benimamet is a town largely populated by Jewish converts to Catholicism. The family on both sides was engaged in the agricultural export business, which gave them an international outlook that was rare during the Franco dictatorship.
Calatrava attended primary and secondary school in Valencia. From the age of eight, he also attended the Arts and Crafts School, where he began his formal instruction in drawing and painting. When he was thirteen, his family took advantage of the recent opening of the borders and sent him to Paris as an exchange student. He later traveled and studied in Switzerland as well. Upon completing high school in Valencia, he went to Paris with the intention of enrolling in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; but after he arrived in June 1968, he found his plan was unworkable.
He returned to Valencia and enrolled in the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura, a relatively new institution, where he earned a degree in architecture and took a post-graduate course in urbanism. While at the school, he also undertook independent projects with a group of fellow students, bringing out two books on the vernacular architecture of Valencia and Ibiza.
Interests:
Attracted by the mathematical rigor of certain great works of historic architecture, and feeling that his training in Valencia had given him no clear direction, Calatrava decided to pursue post-graduate studies in civil engineering and enrolled in 1975 at the ETH (Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich. He received his Ph.D. there in 1979. It was during this period that he met and married his wife, who was a law student in Zurich....
