Calatrava at home: past, present and future CAC of Valencia.

[Dr.T]

Calatrava at home: past, present and future CAC of Valencia city.

The object of this thread that I open is always to analyze the work of Santiago Calatrava in the ground that saw him being born, cozy and hospitable Valencia. I go away to centre on exhibiting his participation in the famous architectural and cultural complex named City of the Sciences and of the Arts (CAC), which from ends of the 90s has seen growing his sculptural - architectural sumptuous work of unstoppable form under protection of the public money (... most of the times) and deprived (...less occasions) of his countrymen.

I will analyze his work in Valencia with merely descriptive character and without entering evaluations, which I leave to the appreciation of other members of the forum with more antiquity and demonstrated criterion that mine.

Chapter one: The past...

The City of the Arts and the Sciences of Valencia (CAC) is an architectural complex of futurist design, of big spaces opened to the public, who spreads along two kilometers over the ancient river bed of the river Turia. It is composed by four big buildings or thematic zones:

* L'Hemisfèric
* L'Umbracle
* The Museum of the Sciences Prince Felipe
* The Palau of them Arts.

L'Hemisfèric (The Hemispherical one), was the first building of the City of the Arts and of the Sciences of Valencia that was inaugurated, in April, 1998. His form represents a big human eye opened for the world, " the eye of the knowledge ".
L'Hemisfèric is a cinema IMAX and, simultaneously, a planetarium. On his semi-spherical screen of 900 square meters, three audio-visual different spectacles are alternated: images of astronomical phenomena in the planetarium, movies in the cinema IMAX, and projections with laser.

L'Umbracle (Shelter) is a garden and a walk conceived lookout as " a balcony towards the future ", because from there there can be contemplated the set of buildings, ponds, walks and landscaped zones of the complex.
It is formed by 55 metallic arches along 320 meters, on which there grow climbing plants and more than 50 floral indigenous species of the Valencian community, in addition to palm trees, orange trees, shrubs of the community, plants tapizantes, aromatic, etc. The most abundant species is the bougainvillaea, in all his varieties (violet, red, orange, yellow and white).

The Museum of the Sciences Prince Felipe is a building of 40.000 square meters dedicated to the publication of the science and the technology. It is provided with wide interactive exhibitions that cheer the visitor up to touch and take part.

The Palau de l´Arts, recently inaugurated, is a spectacular building of 40.000 square meters of surface, with a height of 75 meters, dedicated to the opera and the big theatrical and musical spectacles. It has four different rooms: a principal room, a room for the chamber music and baroque, an amphitheatre and a room for experimental works. Also, it is provided with facilities for the teaching activity.

The maximum enveloping dimensions of the building taking into account the curved shapes which form this are 163 m. in length by 87 m. wide.
Surface area: 37,000 m 2 .
The following quantities of materials were used in the building process:

• over 77.000 cubic metres of concrete.
• 275.000 cubic metres of earth movement.
• 1.750 linear metres of piles.
• 38.500 square metres of granite.
• over 20.000 square metres of trencadis
• 1.450 door units.
• 3.360 square metres of glass.
• 20.000.000 kilograms of structural corrugated steel.
• 10.000.000 kilograms of structural steel .

The roof is the most representative part of the complex. Apart from its painstaking structural and geometrical design, it is extremely expressive in its intention of conveying to the outside world the artistic nature of the activities taking place inside.
The roof or plume is the most structurally spectacular detail, 230m. in length and 70 m. in height, while the two shells which embrace the building on the outside are made of laminated steel with an approximate weight of 3,000 tons and feature delicate ceramic work (trencadis) on the outside. The maximum enveloping dimensions of the building, taking into account the curved shapes which form this, are 163 m. in length by 87 m. wide.

Chapter two: The present...

The bridge Azud de l'Or, which will be provided with four rails in every direction, will work in summer and the Ágora, which will reach 85 meters high, will be ready at the end of year to receive the Open of Tennis of the Valencian Community

The Ágora, the public square of the Greek cities - states, will allow to connect the zone west of the complex with l'Oceanogràfic, and his construction supposes a boasting of constructive skill.

The principal structure is formed by 49 metallic porches of variable dimensions that will come together in the central arch. In fact, such and since Calatrava has explained, the starters of this arch will be the most complicated part of the work.

The Ágora will be a metallic structure of plant similar to an ellipse of 88 meters long for 66 of breadth.The interior space is conceived as a public covered square, of diaphanous plant that will be at the same level as the ponds and the adjacent walks. In the south zone a building will be enabled under the square to locate the services and the technical zones.

The Ágora that will be covered will reach a maximum height of 85 meters when it opens his eyes. His peculiarity is that it will be provided with two gaps in the top part that will be opened by means of a system of muds to regulate the entry of solar light, a mechanism similar to the employee in l'Hemisferic. The revetment of the covering will be the characteristic one of Calatrava. It will predominate over the glass in the top part and the trencadís in the low one, by means of panels lined with ceramics. The idea is that the light comes to all the corners and the square is very illuminated.

The new bridge, so called Azud de l'Or, will be provided with four rails in every direction, one of them reserved to the public transport, destined to absorb the enormous traffic that loads the south boulevard, which, for lack of the bridge, dies in the motorway of El Saler.

For the construction of the bridge there will be necessary 60 special transports that will bring the pieces. They come from La Coruña city (to approximately 850 km from Valencia) and they will load three types of already made structures: the ribs, thorn, and the mast. The thorn covers the central part of board, of margin to margin of the river, whereas the ribs are placed perpendicularly to the thorn, shaping the entire width of the bridge, which in addition to the rails will have capacity for two routes of tramcar and the sidewalks.

The mast is the most complex part of the design. It is shaped by vertebrae and he will suppose a milestone in the city, since it will reach in his highest part 125 meters high, the highest point of Valency, over the tower of France and the hotel Hilton. Thus the bridge will break the horizontalidad that offers the City of the Sciences and the Arts.

The most complicated part will be the laying of the last vertebrae of this particular design. For it there will be needed a special crane that allows to handle a weight of hundred tons and with the difficulty that it will be realized to hundred twenty meters high.

The bridge, which will have 180 meters long, will be sustained by means of 29 front cables and four bottoms, which will take charge generating the necessary tension to support and to balance the structure, of 5.500 tons of weight approximately.

Chapter three: The future...

The project contemplates the creation of three skyscrapers that will take the names of the provinces of the Valencian Community. One of them will be the highest of Spain, with 308 meters. The project of Calatrava was presented in November, 2004, although in February, 2005 it was modified leaving three buildings with a major height opposite to the initial of 2004, which was raising four towers.

In September, 2007 the president of the public entity City of the Sciences and the Arts of Valency, Gerardo Camps, informed that the architect had already delivered an initial project, although the contest has not been summoned yet to auction the plots and to find the company that takes charge of the execution. It has not also been advanced in the requalification of the areas, since the Town hall must change the use of the lots to raise the towers. The highest will lodge housings, whereas others two will have offices and a hotel.

By means of the contest, the Valencian Community hopes to relieve the debt that accumulates the City of the Arts and the Sciences, with the revenue for 300 million euros approximately, according to the numbers that were managing after the presentation of the mock-up.

The idea is to throw the contest when there exists the certainty of which there will be companies that appear to carry out the project, avoiding so it is declared a desert.

The highest tower will be the so called Valencia, with 308 meters. This way it will turn into the roof of Spain. He will be followed closely by the skyscraper Castellón, of 266 meters, and the tower Alicante, with 220 meters.

Along with three buildings, this one will place a building of minor height, compound of a series of pipes knocked down in the east part of the plot. In whole, the edificabilidad of the project, one of the most ambitious of the city, will come to 160.000 square meters between four buildings.

One of the aspects most emphasized from the towers is the design, since the frontage turns on the axis of the building, creating an effect of torsion that Calatrava has already used in the tower Torso, a spectacular building constructed in Malmoe (Sweden), or projected Fordham Spire of Chicago. "The project is a reflex of the industry that existed earlier in the avenue of France in Valencia city and his chimneys. If they are interpreted as columns, more beautiful that I have seen are in my city, in the Old Market (Lonja)”, told the architect Calatrava some days after the presentation of the first mock-up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GALLERY OF IMAGES:



Palau de l´Arts



Palau de l´Arts



L´Hemisferic



L´Hemisferic



L´Hemisferic



The Museum of the Sciences Prince Felipe



The Museum of the Sciences Prince Felipe



L´Umbracle



Azud de l´Or Bridge



Valencia,Castellón y Alicante Towers and The Agora Square

MORE INFORMATION:

www.cac.es/

www.calatrava.com

[Zephyr]

Thanks for this thread.

I have a relative who works in Portugal, and has made several pilgrimages over to this part of Spain to observe this labour of love by Mr. Calatrava Valls. He has envied my exposure to this man in work done in the Middle West and Texas, but he gets to see the bridges, and more easily travels to this particular destination, which I in turn envy.

From what I have seen of his pictures as well as on the Internet, the individual buildings are quite extraordinary with a few notable exceptions. But the layout appears to be too crowded and structured to truly enhance the individual buildings. Perhaps, instead of avoiding these areas when I am on holiday nearby, I need to go see them firsthand.

That will have to wait, however, until maybe next year or the year after.

[Dr.T]

… In the first place Zephyr, thanks for your interest and your prudent criterion on the work of Santiago Calatrava in Valencia. Sometimes in the USA many things have been written on this Spanish architect that turn out too hard to read for that we know its work from the origins. Calatrava besides architect is engineer, and even, although this fact at international level is very stranger, in its beginnings studied Beautiful Arts in Valencia, since its primary professional vocation were to be painter and sculptor.


… To be a great architect it is not necessary to feel so, therefore it has demonstrated the History to it of the Art. The Architecture (written with capital letter) is one of the 7 Arts of which it spoke more ago than 2,000 years Aristotle. The city that more Art hoards in the world well-known today is Florence (Italy), and if there were to give the name of the best architect it stepped on than it, it would be impossible not to speak of Filippo Brunelleschi, author of the wonderful cupola of Santa Maria dei Fiori. The master Filippo Brunelleschi was not architect, his real profession was the one of goldsmith (jeweler), but hoarded in his own interior a prodigious knowledge of the mathematics, the geometry and the calculation of structures, next to an undeniable artistic taste, that took to him to become one of the great personages of the History of the Architecture.


… Santiago Calatrava, without wanting in this way to make parallelisms with the Brunelleschi master, is a put sculptor to architect who models his innovating designs from his dominion of the structures on the base of his technical knowledge like engineer. Calatrava is something more than a simple architect, is a creator of forms, somebody who designs new ideas passing them of the imagination to the concrete in a transit in which the architecture is only the pretext to make them reality.


… In the USA his work often has been criticized because it does not look for so much the amount as the quality. If one observes to render of the Chicago Spire the first that draws attention to you is not its height, but its design transgressor who hits skyline of the city of Chicago because he goes beyond the old design of towers in the form of big boxes or polyhedral crystal buckets. Perhaps this today to few they have obtained it architects, first was Italian Renzo Piano,… behind has arrived the Spanish Santigo Calatrava. In order to understand to Piano and Calatrava and the value of its work, one cannot remain to analyze the NY Times Tower or the Chicago Spire, is necessary to dive in its previous work and to see its purer creations, those in which they have been like such (qualitative aspect) without coming forced by exigencies to do something more stop than previous the existing thing (quantitative aspect). Calatrava is not a skyscraper architect, as it is not it either Piano, it must but them do does.


… To write and open a thread about CAC of Valencia have as for me the object to make reflect on this fact, to look for the essence of the work of Calatrava that is not in the height of the Chicago Spire where better it is possible to be appreciated, but in works like these of Valencia where the most artistic aspect of the Spanish architect leaves to shine in all their explendor. CAC of Valencia is pure design, in her the principle that prevails is one only: the architecture by the architecture,… without more additives. Really, the Architecture like category,… and not as half or symbol of being able by whom the offer to construct and the payment, or as sign of supremacy of a city on another one by its greater height. CAC of Valencia is constructed and paid by beings public, and not by particular promoters, and it has never looked for to create something greater than what there was in Madrid, Paris or Berlin, but something different conceptually from before done in other sites.


… Your analysis on the space distribution of the buildings and its context is quite right, and its reading makes me suspect that you are a deep connoisseur of the projects of Calatrava. This Spanish architect has some heels of Aquilles in his work that make it criticizable: one of them is that it often does not know clearly the city-planning design of his works, which causes that they appear in view of the kind observer of the same like a summation of buildings that do not generate a reading joint. The other great problem of works of Calatrava is that next to their moderns design towards the outside their works are not accompanied by a suitable treatment of their interiors, and so we were, when construction of houses it is, of uninhabitable apartments for it acquires which them by his dimensions and irregular surfaces that often are at sight (without privacy some) of the neighbors and that, when it is theaters or museums, disappoint because one hopes to be something better inside after its spectacular outer forms (the opposite version of Americans HHPA would be something as well as).


… With respect to which you comment Zephyr on the bridges of Calatrava, like engineer which I am, when they to me ask to envelope I say just like an old friend and professor mine of calculation of structures in the Polytechnical University of Madrid: “...really they are bridges which makes Calatrava”. I personally have many doubts sometimes that they are it. In my opinion I believe that their design often ballast their structural capacities making them quite vulnerable. One is about very beautiful constructions, but sometimes doubtful reliability, where the adornment and the design have dominated the exigencies of utility and practicidad, and, why not to say it, to those of structural security of the work. Certain it is that never fallen is had no to the ground, but continues abusing the design someday can happen to him, and then the myth of Calatrava also perhaps falls as it is happening to him to Renzo Piano since the Kansai Airport of Osaka has begun to give to problems of seat of its structures and collapse of grounds of the artificial island constructed to give him fitted in its interior. In any case, one is gorgeous bridges,… perhaps for that reason Calatrava has been unique the able one to construct, so many centuries later, one in the Great Channel of Venice.


… Kindly, it receives a warm greeting, Dr.T .

[Luca]

I've only seen one piece by Calatrava; the auditorium in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It certainly is very evocative of his Valencia 'campus'.

While I do not appreciate the isolated suburbanism of the location and the anticontextuality of its placement, the building I saw seemed to me nothign short of lyrical. If i compare it to some of the more heinous deconstructivist blots, it's like a swan in flight (Calatrava) vs. a seabirds caught in an oil slick (Lieberskind, say). In other words,: such beautiful buildings!!

Bravo, Santi!!

[Dr.T]

TENERIFE OPERA HOUSE.

...I am with you Luca in whom this singular Auditorium is any thing except a current construction. The auditorium of Tenerife is a dynamic sculpture and, nevertheless, it lives like a monolithic construction destined to which the unexpected thing happens.

...The building has turned already, in the whole symbol, an icon, of the city opposite to the world. Symbol that reinforces the city and projects his image on the outside, both for his singularity and for his characteristics, with which Calatrava tries to extend the artistic character of the activities that are carried out in his interior towards the exterior.

...The construction consists of 23,000 square meters. Of which 6,741 fit to the building and rest of form part of the urban development, of the gardens and of the parking with 260 units. The auditorium, which is crowned by a gigantic wing (. . a pen, a wave or a gigantic tongue of retrieval which tries to swallow it and does not achieve it), presents two good and distinctive external characteristics that award his personality: The first one of them, is his clear gap on the outside, both to the sea and to the city, with wide patios and open seats, and with a pedestrian walk that crosses the building transversely. Secondly of these singularities, due to the tension and by force expressive of the Calatrava art, they are located more to the auditorium in the orbit of a gigantic organic sculpture provided with its own interior music that it comes out towards the exterior.

...The auditorium of Tenerife is provided with two rooms, the principal or polyphonic one, with 1,716 seats, and other one of camera with something more about 400 seats. The principal room is crowned by a dome and is equipped with variable panels located on the walls with what it is allowed to change the acoustics of the room in accordance with the different spectacles: opera, symphonic concert, recitals, dance, jazz, etc.

...The big stage has 363 square meters, with a mouth 17 meters wide for 13 meters deep. To provide to the scene of a major flexibility, three hydraulic platforms have been equipped: two destined ones for the band and the third one for the piano. This allows to locate both to the band and to the possible choirs in diverse levels.

... Finally, the room is crowned by an organ, fundamental piece of the scenic equipment of the building, which construction was in hands of the Catalan teacher Gabriel Blancafort. The construction of the Tenerife Opera House, it began during the spring 1997. At present the work is concluded and has been inaugurated during September, 2003.

[Dr.T]

SOCCER STADIUM NEW MESTALLA

... Making use of the existence of this thread on the city of Valencia, I do not want to allow to spend the opportunity to present other of his star-projects that is executed at present.

... It is a question of the Soccer Stadium New Mestalla, which will receive the final of Champions League 2011. The project is a work of the British architect Mark Fenwik, and it is considered, for the experts in the matter, like the most modern of the world when it should conclude his construction in 9 months, overcoming in facilities, endowments and equipments to modern Allianz Arena of Munich and Wembley Arena of London.

... Let's see the principal technical characteristics of the project:

Qualification UEFA: Stadium 5 stars UEFA

Budgeted finally:EU € 220 million

Capacity: 75,000 spectators

Localidades covered: 100%

Field of play: 68x105 m

Other sports: possibility of lodging competitions of Athletics

Number of tribunes: 3 steps

- Low step: 22,000 spectators

- Average step: 18,000 spectators

- High step: 35,000 spectators

Parking of 3,100 underground units:

- 2,600 parking spaces for public general

- 330 parking spaces VIP

- 130 parking spaces VIP PREMIUM

- 30 parking spaces for players and technical body

- 15 parking spaces for buses and trucks of press

Vertical circulation:

- 24 accsess stairs

- 10 nuclei of sure circulation and system antifires

- 22 elevators and hoist

- 8 escalators to area VIP

Area VIP and Authorities:

- Honor Theater box, 150 persons

- 18 theater boxes Platinum

- 22 theater boxes Gold

- 24 theater boxes Silver

- Step bronze: 1,500 spectators

- 1,200 square meters areas of reception and waiting

Restoration, 75 points of sale:

- Restaurant Premium:3,000 square meters with a view to the field

- Gran shaped 2 restaurants boulevard with catering service in the rests of the match

- 8 Cofee Corners

- Commercial authorization distributed uniformly in the whole building

- Integrated system of supplying and kitchens of preparation of catering

Equipment to the sportsmen: 4,400 square meters

- Principal wardrobes: 450 square meters

- Secondary wardrobes: 250 square meters

- Technical stays: 750 square meters

Press:

- Room of 725 square meters press: 200 capacity accreditations.

- Area of restoration proper

- 4 direct accesses to the tribune of press

- 250 square meters mixed Area communicated with the room of press

- 5 television sets-studies for live emission

... One of the important aspects of the project is the exterior design of the front and the covering of the stadium that will be realized in aluminum, since it has an enormous durability and does not oxidize. The covering will give capacity under his roof to all the localities of the New Mestalla, in whole 75,000 seats. The front has pronounced symbolic character that personalizes it and does not make his reproduction possible in other stadiums that are constructed in the future: it represents by means of badges superposed the different quarters of the city, that there joins a big glazed breach that it reproduces to the river Turia to his step between them along the urban plane that supposes the enormous hollow mural of the front. The lighting will be spectacular during the night, since between the badges of the covering there will go out a few lights that with a swept effect will show the colors target, orange and blue of the quarters and the river in his front.

... Let's see the renders of the stadium New Mestalla, designed by Mark Fenwick:

... I will add some images of the current state in which there are the works of construction of the stadium, which conclusion is foressen for the first trimester of 2009.

by SALVATORE



by FLO_18

by aCidMinD

... To complete the post I am going to put to you a virtual tour that shows in a sequence of 25 images how it will be the stadium when the works of construction end. You must click on PLAY so that it starts the sequence

www.lasprovincias.es/valencia/multimedia/fotos/10415.html

.... Finally, and to finish the post, I leave to you the promotional video that the Town hall of the city of Valencia and the Valencia Club of Soccer, titular team of the future New Mestalla, they created on the occasion of the presentation of the candidacy of the city to lodge the FINAL 2011 of UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. It is worth seeing it entire if you want to do to yourselves an idea of what is today the city of Valencia and his international projection, especially the second part of the same one that is spectacular

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtlvs866n4M

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MORE INFORMATION:

http://www.urbanity.es/foro/showthread.php?t=135

[Dr.T]

TOWER OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS OF THE OLYMPIAN PARK OF BARCELONA 92.
SANTIAGO CALATRAVA

... There lived through Barcelona an explosion of architecture and town-planning renewal owing to the Olympic Games of 1992, and an example of it is the tower of telecommunications that Santiago Calatrava constructed, in full ring Olympian


.... The Montjuic tower - original name - popularly known like Tower Calatrava, it presents an innovative design and surf with the towers of traditional telecommunications. Telefonica Corporation (Spanish phone companhy) broke his traditional model of towers of dispersed telecommunications for Spain and South America to take part in the need that Spain had in the year 1992, to show the whole world a modern and innovative country. Madrid (the European Cultural capital 92), Seville (Universal Exhibition 92) and Barcelona (Olympic Games 92) were the perfect shop window to present to the world a country that had been capable to modernize in a short period of time. A country capable of confronting the challenges of the future, with aptitude to organize three big international events at the same time and to be an attraction for tourists and investors


.... As for originality, apart from his distinctive structural form, the tower is innovative in including the circular platform of the (transmitting) plates of data transmission, replacing the traditional antennas body with an arch with a showy tracing. This series of elements does that, the 136 meters structure, it turns into something more than a tower:... an agreeable sculpture in the Olympian ring


.... The form of the tower is based on a drawing of Calatrava of a figure of an athlete of the ancient Greece, on having kneeled down at the moment of gathering the trophy, like winner of an Olympian test. The base of the tower is covered in enameled tiles broken on recognition to Gaudi and his famous skill of the "trencadís". The orientation of the tower achieves that it turns into a gigantic sundial, which it marks the hours on the Europe´s Square of the Olympian ring, where it coexists with the Olympian Palace of Sports (Palau San Jordi), work of the Japanese Arata Isozaki


.... Santiago Calatrava already had personal misunderstandings with Arata Isozaki immediately after this work, on not having been in accordance with the design of the Europe´s Square in which there is his tower of telecommunications, which finally was awarded to the architect Japanese and designed by the wife of this one. Calatrava was thinking that the design of the square was heightening the Isozaki building, alienating the sculptural value of his work. These disagreements between these two big contemporary architects have been still alive in the time, and recently they have come to the courts of justice immediately after another work of Isozaki in Bilbao, opposite to the Museum Guggenheim, where the Japanese architect went so far as to modify a bridge of Calatrava that existed previously on the river Nervion, to lead to an office block (complex Isozaki Atea Bilbo) constructed by him later.




... Little aptitude of Santiago Calatrava to get on and to be on good terms with other contemporary architects of his was the real cause of his participation in the project of Barcelona 92, since finally he accepted the order of doing the tower of the Olympian ring after knowing that the English Norman Foster would construct another tower of telecommunications of the city: the Tower Collserolla of the mount Tibidabo. In those days of 1992 it was walking still recently the polemic arisen between Calatrava and Foster by that of Reichstag of Berlin, where Foster won the international contest for his reform, but later it modified his initial project to construct a dome almost identical to the proposal for Calatrava, what almost totality of the critics was qualified like a clear plagiarism for in architecture of Europe. In Barcelona 92 both competed on equal terms and the success of the symbolic victory, as for design and beauty of both towers, it fell down of the Calatrava side: his work is very superior to the realized one by the English Foster in the Collsarella.

[Dr.T]

EL ALAMILLO BRIDGE

EXPO SEVILLE 92

(SANTIAGO CALATRAVA)

...Bridge sustained by cables of steel , in the shape of harp. The design presents only one mast 140 meters high, which supports the whole weight of the board of the bridge, by means of a suspenders couple. Between the mast and the board produces to itself a balance of forces, which is transmitted by 13 pairs of suspenders (of 300 meters, longest of the world when it was constructed in 1992). His beginning of functioning is that of a scales in which the balance is obtained by means of the collapse of the mast, in an angle of 58 grades on the horizontal one.

... It is considered to be the first bridge of the history sustained by cables on which the platform balances with the weight of the sloping tower backwards. Mast of hexagonal badges of steel, reinforced in his interior for concrete. The board is designed by a metallic structure, and consists of a central drawer and of hexagonal form where the active anchoring of the suspenders is. From this drawer there depart a few 4 meters metallic ribs, on both sides, on which there rests a flagstone of concrete that forms the board where it must circulate the traffic.

... The bridge has a horse eye in the top part of his mast, which is a lookout, which is closed to the visit of the public.

... Along with the bridge of the Alamillo, the viaduct is located. The viaduct of La Cartuja order, with a length 526,50 meters long and rested on his ends on stirrups reinforced by terraces with staircases and platforms of access, is a continuous structure arched with rails superposed in projecting, one Superior reserved to the traffic of vehicles, of approximately 22 meters wide, and low two for pedestrians and bicycles, 4,40 meters wide.

[Dr.T]

NEW TRAMCAR BRIDGE OF CALATRAVA IN JERUSALEM CITY

... The architect Santiago Calatrava has released the same June of 2008 in Jerusalem new suspension bridge, a work that has generated the rejection of the majority of the population, but that he considers to be "the most beautiful" that he has constructed till now. In the opinion of the Spanish architect, "the most important aspect of this bridge is that it is in Jerusalem: a city with an enormous meaning, for being probably the biggest religions intersection in the world".


... Precisely, the symbolic and historical character of the city, which receives the principal Jewish and Christian centers of peregrination and some Muslims, is the one that has untied criticism towards the architectural work raised with 4,200 tons of concrete and steel of high resistance and with a design of marked modernity.


..." In this city, to make a building 100 % or, even, 120 % modern like this one, is something very special and even more to dedicate it to something so modern like the public transport, and inside this, to a tramcar", told Calatrava.


... For Calatrava, the monumental work, which plans a 360 meters long curve and is supported by 70 cables of white steel that hang by a mast 118 meters high,"it is a today bridge, in contrast with the historical and cultural character of the city. The dialogue between both is an important part of the work".


... Calatrava understands that Jerusalem has an image of walled city, but it is also modern, with the highest growth index and every time with more tourism. That's why, for him "it is fundamental that has a modern character. It is clear that there is a contrast, but the bridge is an authentic testimony of our epoch", has added the Spanish architect. . A contrast that has not pleased to the majority of the inhabitants of the millennial city, that they criticize it for his place, his big size, his "ugliness" and his modernity, and have gone so far as to consider it to be as a sample of "municipal ego" of the current prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who entrusted the bridge when it was at the head of the Mayoralty of Jeruslem (1993-2003).

[Dr.T]

The QUARTO PONTE on the Big Channel of Venice

(SANTIAGO CALATRAVA)

... The Italian Government, across his Department of Culture, will propose in next meeting of the committee of the World Patrimony of the UNESCO that includes the Quarto Ponte on the Big Channel of Venice in the list of works that are part of the Patrimony of the Humanity.

... This work of the architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava has turned into an event of big interest because only three bridges have been constructed from the XVIth century in the city that possesses a major number of bridges of the world.

... The pedestrian bridge designed by Calatrava is located in a strategic place, connecting for the north with the Train Station and for the south with the Piazzale Rome. This way, the new bridge fulfills the function to join the terminal of bus of the small Square of Rome with the Train station, reinforcing the knot of transport of the city.

... With a 94 meters length and a width that changes from 5,5 m of every end to the 9,3 of the central point, the work rises of a 3,2 m height in the base up to 9,2 m in the central point. The structure of steel, decorated with white stone of Istria and light counterwinds of crystal, consists of a central arch of 180 m of radio, with two side arches and another two low ones.

... The design has been very respectful with the Big Channel and the same way careful as for the integration of the bridge with the wharves of both ends. While the steps and the ramps add vitality on both sides of the channel, the buttresses, with form of arch, they provide the access to the wharves. The steps and the platform are of sections of moderate crystal of safety and natural stone of Istria alternatively, respecting the design of the existing paving. The buttresses of armed concrete are covered with the same stone while the parapet is of crystal and the rail is of varnished bronze.

... Other one of his peculiar characteristics is the lighting. At night, a series of fluorescent bulbs located inside the rail will light the way together with the existing lighting under the transparent platform and the foci located in the base of the walls in both ends of the bridge.

[Dr.T]

VELES e VENT Building



32nd edition America´s Cup



David Chipperfield



... Some time ago that Valencia is betting on the tourism like his principal attraction and this sports event was one more step in the consolidation of this activity. More than 60,000 work places were created when it promised to be like head office of 32nd edition of America's Cup and fruit of it five stars constructed themselves 3 new hotels in the city, a new marina for the competitions, a park and a modern building in charge of David Chipperfield who was a head office of the sponsors, taking part teams and international authorities that came to attend the competition







.... The arrival of America's Cup to Europe opened innumerable opportunities for the most important event of the world sail. And the first one of the changes of this new age was the organization of a process of selection to choose the City Sedate of 32nd America's Cup. Valencia city, the biggest third city of Spain earned the process for numerous reasons, between which it was his unbeatable meteorological conditions for the practice of the sail and the commitment to create an infrastructure at a height of one of the most important events of the world.







... Part of this infrastructure was Port America's Cup with his new Marina of 700 points of just mooring in the heart of the action and to only a few minutes of the field of ditches.






... Port America's Cup is near to the beach of La Malvarrosa, with his seafront, restaurants, bars and discotheques. The urban beach with more activity of free time of Spain.









... In the center of Port America's Cup, the VELES E VENT building turned into the central head office for the teams and sponsors, as well as a few privileged lookouts on which to follow the ditches.




















... Structurally, the building is composed by four platforms arranged to different heights and lightly displaced, that create shades and uninterrupted conference, obtaining a perfect integration of the building with the port scenery and, ultimately, with the sea.
























... The platforms, on having remained liberated of pillars, turn out to be pendent - seemingly - in the gap, although in fact they are supported on four structural supports. The fronts for his part, desmaterializan in big planes glazed between platforms, thanks to the solar protection that the big projecting ones provide to him.











MORE INFORMATION:

David Chipperfield Architects

b720

PHOTOS by:

DCA

Robert Walch

Flickr
(pipearaya, st-lite y freshwater)

PLANES by:

plataformaarquitectura

[Troyeth]

Hopefully you do not mind a Liège-Guillemins TGV Station interruption of your thread, Dr. T, a brand new railway station by Mr. Calatrava.

Not yet completed, it is already a beautiful masterpiece.




Photos by me, Troyeth, July 2008.

[Dr.T]

Hopefully you do not mind a Liège-Guillemins TGV Station interruption of your thread, Dr. T, a brand new railway station by Mr. Calatrava.

Not yet completed, it is already a beautiful masterpiece.

...Of course, troyeth ... you are at home !. No problem, let´s talk about railway stations of Calatrava. It´s a so interesting matter...

[Dr.T]

RAILWAY STATION OF LIEGE-GUILLEMINS

SANTIAGO CALATRAVA

... The station of Liège (Belgium) is suffering important changes of modernization and is giving that speaking, already is for his esthetics or his technical deployment. The passengers' transport of high speed (TGV) answers to the prevailing demand of a system of efficient displacement, necessary for the soc-economic development of the Europe of the XXIst century. The tracing of a new plot on the territory, gives to him to regions, relegated for big metropolis, the opportunity of development and the possibility of a clearer future.




... The new station placed for practical reasons, immediately next to the existing building, answers to the needs for railroad modernization: rectilinear platforms, increase of the speeds of entry to the station, comfort for the users, etc. The station articulates the quarter of Guillemins towards the city and the hill of Cointe, where it gets connected straight with the freeways system. This tie between city, quarter, train and highway is the only set in Europe and it is connected across a bridge "bow-string" and a viaduct in steel, designed and constructed also by Santiago Calatrava in the year 2000.





... The high technical and town-planning requirements to be satisfied to modernize the station, in addition to considering his esthetics to be a central topic, have led to Euro Liège TGV to electing Calatrava as the ideal person to conceive this project endorsed also by the quality of his concepts already developed at the stations of Zurick - Stadelhofen (1992), Lyons-Saint-Exupery (1994) and Lisbon-do Oriente (1998).



DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT:



... The project is located on the idea of the transparence and the tie of two quarters till now separated, that of the hill of Cointe and the quarter of Guillemins. The continuity station / train is reinforced by a volume of steel and crystal that does not possess fronts in the classic sense of the term.





... The Calatrava conception is based by the clear beginning:

1. The election of the steel for the super structures, expressing gap and agility.
2. Coverages in glass, leaving the look towards the sky.
3. Dissimulation of the technical facilities that might degrade the esthetics of the building.
4. Use of the concrete to express the spaces closed under soil and the support of the structures.

... The construction is organized in three levels:

1. The passengers' center, placed under the routes at the same level as the square opposite to the station.
2. The platforms accessible by long stairs from the square of arrival (large-scale entrance hall).
3. The transverse footbridges, to the same height of the auto-routes, allow a direct access to these.

... The metallic structure is of a 10,000 tons entire weight, composed by the vault, the footbridges, the projecting ones and the covering of the platforms.





... The principalvault has a 200 m length. and a 35 m height. She is constituted of 39 arches of steel that rest on two footbridges supported by metallic pieces of four supports. The structure is stabilized transversely by two projecting ones, of the side of the square of access and of the side of the hill, of respectively 45,15 m. and 38,10 m. of depth. The vault prolongs longitudinally to turn long covering, following the same composition on five platforms. Three of 450 m. them of length, being able to receive two trains guy Thalys (TGV's).





... The assembly of this work conjugates inside a homogeneous dynamic and esthetic balance. The breadth of the projecting ones is superior to that of the central coverage.

MORE PICTURES:










































PHOTOS by

Francos Olivares
plataformaarquitectura

[Dr.T]

GARE DO ORIENTE´S
RAILWAY STATION
LISBON (Portugal)

SANTIAGO CALATRAVA

...Gare do Oriente is one of the main transport hubs in Lisbon, Portugal. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava and built by Necso. It was finished in 1998 for the Expo '98 world's fair in Parque das Nações, where it is located.

...It encompasses a Lisbon Metro station, a high-speed, commuter and regional train hub, a local, national and international bus station, a shopping centre and a police office.

...The station bears considerable resemblance to Calatrava's earlier Allen Lambert Galleria within Toronto's Brookfield Place.

DESCRIPTION:

.... The Calatrava architecture overlaps lightly on the urban textile, integrating perfectly into this one and representing at the same time a strong caracteristical element , as a big and skeletal insect placed close to the river, is articulated in elegant and slender forms.

... The high quality of the technology used during his construction and the employment of the steel, of the cement and of the crystal is translated in an exceptional work of art, with light and elegant signs.

... The building has managed to find immediately his active role in the territory, up to be constituting in an essential sign of the same one, of which the city hardly might separate in the future; the station turns not only into a new public step place, but also of aggregation and of meeting.

... Santiago Calatrava has conceived a project that is capable of translating the modular structures of the canopies, of the frameworks and of the covering in an innovative design. According to his words, the forms take his inspiration of the observation of the plants and of the animals and of the relation with the territorial, seen context not like static form, but like an organism in movement and evolution, in that something always happens.

... The technical experience and the conviction of the importance of continuing and of respecting the nature of the materials (Nature mater et magistra), does that the cement is treated like a soft and malleable matter and the steel is doubled in fluid and spontaneous forms.

... The language of the geometry and that of the structure they join across a patient and personal search; the essential forms continue a rhythmic organization and evoke an abstract absent-minded representation of the organic world; the frameworks, like trees, hold a transparent covering of crystal that it offers, at the same time, I shelter of the inclemencies of the time and a panoramic sight on the place of the EXPO.

... In the night the interior lighting does even more permeable to the building and the attraction of the same one increases exalting his agility.

PICTURES:

PHOTOS by

flickr

galenfrysinger.com

Dr.T