Spanish visionary Santiago Calatrava is renowned around the world as an architect, structural engineer, sculptor, and artist. Famed for bridges as much as buildings, he has made his name with neofuturistic structures that combine deft engineering solutions with dramatic visual impact. From the Athens 2004 Olympic sports complex and the Museum of Tomorrow to the Peace Bridge in Calgary, Alamillo Bridge in Seville, and the Mujer Bridge in Buenos Aires, Calatrava's creations show particular interest in the meeting point of movement and balance. With influences ranging from NASA space design to da Vinci's nature studies, the structures dazzle with a sense of lightness, agility, and aerodynamism, but always with a graceful poise amid their particular surroundings. This compact introduction explores Calatrava's unique aesthetic with key projects from his career, from early breakthroughs to his most recent work. Through buildings of culture, science, faith, and across his many famous bridges, we explore his integration of organic forms and human movements, and a uniquely fluid futurism, soaring towards tomorrow. About the series Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture series features: an introduction to the life and work of the architect the major works in chronological order information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts, and plans)

Santiago Calatrava first made a name for himself in the late 1980s with delicately designed structures in Zurich that seem to grow out of the earth. He went on to create a series of highly innovative, iconic bridges across Europe, and in recent years he has drawn attention for such large-scale projects as the City of Arts and Sciences in his birth town, Valencia; the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro; and the World Transportation Hub at Ground Zero in New York. Originally trained as an engineer, Calatrava has, at heart, always leaned more towards artistic endeavours than purely structural ones: an entire floor of his residence in Zurich is devoted to creating paintings and sculpture, which he has pursued throughout his career. His influences range from art history and natural philosophy to antiquity, and he manages to combine these in buildings that are structurally highly stylized yet somehow timeless. While many books have documented Calatrava's output over the years, this is the first to offer his own thoughts, in his own words, in a reading format. In this heartfelt memoir of an architect of singular conviction, Calatrava's inspirations, lessons and achievements will touch every reader, whether aspiring architect or lover of art and nature.

Personnalite visionnaire, l'Espagnol Santiago Calatrava est un architecte, ingenieur en structure, sculpteur et artiste reconnu dans le monde entier. Celebre pour ses ponts autant que pour ses batiments, il s'est fait connaitre par des structures neo-futuristes qui combinent prouesses d'ingenierie et effet visuel spectaculaire. Du Complexe des sports olympiques d'Athenes en 2004, en passant par le musee de Demain a Rio de Janeiro, le pont de la Paix a Calgary, le pont Alamillo a Seville et le pont de la Mujer a Buenos Aires, les creations de Calatrava temoignent de son interet particu-lier pour saisir le point de jonction entre dynamisme et equilibre. Fortes d'influences puisees dans le design spatial de la NASA aussi bien que dans les etudes d'apres nature de Leonard de Vinci, ses construc-tions eblouissent par leur legerete, leur grace et leur aero-dy-na-misme, dans un accord toujours parfait avec leur environnement. Cet ouvrage introductif compact explore l'esthetique unique de Calatrava en presentant des projets phares de sa carriere, depuis ses premieres innovations jusqu'a ses oeuvres les plus recentes. Les batiments culturels, religieux ou dedies a la science, ainsi que ses nombreux ponts celebres, nous devoilent la facon dont l'architecte integre les formes naturelles et les mouvements du corps humain dans un style futuriste fluide et unique, resolument tourne vers le futur. A propos de la collection Chaque volume de la Basic Architecture Series de TASCHEN contient: en introduction, des textes qui explorent l'origine, la vie et l'oeuvre de l'architecte ses realisations majeures, presentees dans l'ordre chronologique des informations sur les commanditaires, les conditions architectoniques prealables ainsi que les problemes de construction rencontres et les solutions qui leur ont ete apportees une liste de toutes les realisations selectionnees et une carte sur laquelle sont indiquees les constructions les plus celebres de l'architecte environ 120 illustrations (photographies, esquisses, dessins et plans)