Product Description

Master of Form: Santiago Calatrava's exquisite fusion of architecture, art and engineering (Complete Works 1979-2007)

Santiago Calatrava is not only one of the world's most prominent architects, but also an engineer and an artist. With recent projects such as the stadiums for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens or the new railway station in Liège, Belgium, he has reached a level of undeniable notoriety in Europe and continues to move further ahead. The only architect ever to have his work exhibited at both the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he is currently working on the main transportation hub for Ground Zero in Manhattan as well as the tallest building in the United States: the 160-story Chicago Spire Tower. Winner of the 2005 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal as well as numerous other prestigious awards, Calatrava is one of the greatest and most innovative architects alive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #218168 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-30
• Original language: English, German, French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

From the Publisher
He collaborated extensively with Philip Jodidio in the preparation of this monograph that retraces his career thus far and places his architecture in the context of his art, where nature meets engineering. All of Calatrava's work, from his astonishing suspended swimming pool at Zurich's Federal Institute of Technology to his latest, startling designs, is featured in this lavishly illustrated volume. Santiago Calatrava created watercolor drawings specifically for the fold-out pages of this volume.

About the Author
The author: Philip Jodidio studied art history and economics at Harvard University, and was Editor-in-Chief of the leading French art journal Connaissance des Arts for over two decades. He has published numerous articles and books, including TASCHEN's Architecture Now! series, Building a New Millennium, and monographs on Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Richard Meier, or Álvaro Siza, and is internationally recognized as one of the most popular writers on the subject of architecture.

Customer Reviews

A huge coffee table book
Santiago Calatrava is an astounding architect, engineer and artist. His work has revitalized the organic tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff. Calatrava's work is rewarding on both a macro scale and micro scale because he pays equal attention to building details and to his all-encompassing vision (as best expressed at the City of Arts and Sciences complex in Valencia). It should be stated clearly that this is a coffee table book and not a scholarly book. The emphasis is clearly on the photos and on Calatrava's watercolors. Another point that needs to be made is that the title of this book is somewhat misleading. It only includes a bare-bones listing of all his work and covers just a selection of his major built, unbuilt and upcoming projects in depth. For that reason, this is a fine addition to a Calatrava collection, but it is not the be-all or end-all.

Vanity Publication
I received this book as a gift from much cherished colleagues - and I very much appreciate their generosity.
While the book does offer a comprehensive overview of Calatrava's work I would say this is a book for the lay reader, not the professional. Firstly there is not enough technical information in the form of plans, sections, elevations. Secondly, the amount of real estate allocated to Calatrava's sketches of the human body not to mention the post hoc sketches of his designs suggest a somewhat vain and spurious connection with the architectural work itself. And thirdly, the book is grossly oversized - and overpriced - to be a really useful addition to the office library. In short this is not even a coffee table book, it is a work of overweaning self-regard. not an unimportant lesson for today's architects, but perhaps not the intended message.

nice picture book for adults
I've never had such a big book! It is six kilograms full with beautiful and impressive photos and lots of sketches of this master of art and dynamic architecture.
The book is a real 'wannahave' and gives a good impression of what the architect has performed.
The text is in 3 languages (English, German and French) so that the actual amount of text is pretty small.
There is almost no technical information in the book, despite the fact that Calatrava must be a 'master of matter' to be able to construct these marvelous buildings.
Nor are there plans of the buildings, unfortunately.
The book is an excellent eye catcher on my table, and it can give lots of inspiration for new buildings.