Santiago Calatrava – the Artworks: A Laboratory of Ideas, Forms and Structures

by Michael Levin

Book by Levin, Michael

271 pages, Hardcover

First published December 3, 1998

About the author

Michael Levin is Professor of Philosophy, City College of New York.

Reviews

[Elisa Borowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

My father brought this book back for me from his recent trip to Chicago. It was a delight to see Calatrava's sculptures and watercolors, which played a role in the formation of his ideas for larger scale works. I was mystified by compositions that looked as though they ought to tip over, intrigued by those resembling three-dimensional puzzles that might unfold and fold up into themselves again. There is such beauty in his works that appear to be inspired by spines, teeth, and ribcages, wings and beaks, water ripples and waves, in his slight and elegant geometrical repetition, his string compositions, his eye for color exemplified in his sketches. While the visual content was remarkable, the writing in the book was a bit bland and, I believe, only skimmed the surface of the subject matter. There were no phrases that I desired to keep and quote, which is rare, but perhaps it is just not that kind of book. The display of work it provided made it a well worthwhile read.