info suisse Winter 2015
Construction
December 2015

Swiss-Spanish Architect Calatrava’s curved and flowing steel creations

One of the world’s foremost visionary, utopian, and iconic architects today, Santiago Calatrava, has been named as this year’s recipient of the prestigious European Prize for Architecture. Known for his flowing, curved buildings, he uses steel, concrete, and new computer modeling to create compositions that appear at once natural and structurally impossible.

Calatrava’s architectural masterpieces can be found around the world. But only now when researching further I realized how many of these flowing structures designed by Swiss- Spanish architect I was somewhat familiar with. For example the glass arcade over Brookfield Place in the heart of downtown Toronto, or the pedestrian bridge along the waterfront trail over Mimico Creek. Similarly in Switzerland, the train station Zurich- Stadelhofen, the University of Zurich Law Faculty, the bus station and Pfalzkeller Gallery in St. Gallen, the PTT Postal building and train station in Luzern, a Theatre in Basal and many more.

Below are brief descriptions of some of the stunning structures Calatrava built in Canada and in Switzerland, but for a visual treat to all his creations, please visit www.calatrava.com.

Brookfield Place, Toronto
Calatrava’s intervention in the heart of Toronto covers Heritage Square (now called the Brookfield Place) with a soaring roof that creates a block-long arcade, connecting various buildings and streets. The 130-meter long (426 feet), 14-meter wide (46 feet) and 27-meter high (89 feet) arcade gives form and meaning to spaces that otherwise would have become isolated by a general lack of coordination. Unlike the traditional glazed and vaulted arcades of 19th century Europe, with their purpose-built interior facades, this gallery has been conceived as a free-standing element between existing buildings. It appears as a new typology for weather-protected precincts. Built from 1987 – 1992 it still is a focal point for entry into central Toronto’s subterranean pedestrian network. A space-defining function has thus been created that imposes a new point of orientation upon otherwise disparate structures.

 
Mimico Creek Bridge
Toronto Department of Parks and Culture commissioned the Mimico Creek Bridge project as part of an extension to the Waterfront Trail along the shores of Lake Ontario. The Mimico Creek Bridge with its single inclined arch proposes an elegant design counterpoint to an existing landmark and does so at a modest scale, while contributing a memorable new element of its own to the site and its surrounding areas. Designed for pedestrians and cyclists, the Mimico Creek Bridge spans 44 meters (144 feet) with a 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) wide deck. The exceptionally light superstructure, which weighs only 50 tons, was designed in such a way that it could be prefabricated off-site as four separate pieces and later assembled into a single unit on site after being lowered into place by a crane.


Calgary Peace Bridge
The new bridge is a landmark structure connecting the richly landscaped residential community of Sunnyside on the north side of the river with the modern urban downtown community of Eau Claire, located on the south side of the river. The 126-meter long (413 feet) and 8-meter wide (26 feet) with a total height at 5.85 meters (19 feet) bridge structure is embedded as a sculptural, yet mathematically-derived element into a naturally landscaped surrounding and its sculptural appearance generates a striking contrast with the surrounding landscape. The structured shape is defined by a helix developed over an oval cross section with two clearly defined tangential radii creating an architectural space within. The upper openings are filled with glazed leaves bent to the same shape as the exterior of the helical form offering protection to the users from the rain and winter weather conditions. Santiago Calatrava was awarded the 2014 National Steel Design Award of Excellence by the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction for the steel structure of the Peace Bridge.

Railway Station Stadelhofen
Calatrava’s design encompasses not only the passenger platform and commercial arcade, but a canopied promenade, three contrasting bridges, stairs, elevators as well as the support of the power cables. The Swiss Federal Railways commissioned the expansion and redefinition of an existing railway station in the heart of Zurich on Stadelhofen Square with a program calling for the accommodation of a third track and the creation of a commercial arcade. Options for accommodating a third track were a tunnel (the more intricate but less intrusive approach) and an open excavation (the quicker solution). Calatrava proposed a compromise that respected the terrain but could be implemented without delay. He demolished the old retaining wall, undercut the slope and retained the hill with a concrete box-beam with convex soffit, supported at the rear by an anchored and piled wall and supported by a series of slanting, tapering, triple-point columns at the front. This structure develops as a continuous section following the curve of the tracks under the hill. Above the box-beam, running its full length, is a promenade, enhanced by a cable trellis to create a green ‘canopy’. A road bridge follows the gradient of the hill; a pedestrian bridge is supported by a triangulated structure; and a second pedestrian bridge springs like a thin, undulating membrane of concrete from a distinctive sculptural base. Covering the open platform is a curved canopy made of translucent glass, which allows light to filter down to the subterranean passageway through prefabricated glassbrick elements laid in the platform.


University of Zurich Law Faculty
As part of an effort to centralize the University’s Law School’s facilities, which were dispersed throughout eight different buildings, the Canton of Zurich and the University commissioned Calatrava to prepare a study for an addition of two stories to a landmarked building’s wings, and to raise the building structure to its original height, and to house its administration offices and classrooms.

Calatrava’s proposal expanded the original project scope and provided a new facility for the law school’s distinguished library and rare books collection within the landmarked building. 

Calatrava devised a hydraulically movable pleated curtain of collapsible blades to provide the reading rooms with controlled natural light from the ceiling, which also function as acoustic tiles. He completes by adding a two-story of lightweight steel structure to the lower wings of the existing building. The steel columns and beams form shelves that support the floor plates and allow the new structure to float over the existing building. The curtain-wall facade is characterized by thin, elegant window profiles and horizontal sunshades.

Calatrava then conceived the library as a stack of six oval rings, hung as an independent structure within the rectangular courtyard.

This cascade of galleries is supported from the court-yard’s walls at four points, leaving the facade of the building’s courtyard virtually untouched.

A domed copper roof over the library and courtyard features a glazed skylight. The choice of copper harmonizes with the materials used in the surrounding buildings, just as the dome’s form echoes several nearby cupolas. Thanks to the daylight, natural light penetrates deep into the reading rooms and filters into the corners of the courtyard.


Salvatore Calatrava was born in urban Valencia, Spain, where he received a degree in architecture at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. In 1975 he enrolled in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland, for a second degree in civil engineering. In 1981, after receiving his doctorate in civil engineering for his thesis, “On the Foldability of Space Frames”, he started his architecture and engineering practice.
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