Week 7 Studio - Calatrava - Part 1

Santiago Calatrava wrote his thesis for his engineering PhD on "The foldability of Space Frames." He has a large family - wife, 3 sons and a daughter. They all live in Manhattan in 3 adjoining townhouses - Santiago, his wife and daughter on the one side, office in the middle and 3 sons have apartments on the other side. Fascinated by the human body, especially the skeleton, and structural engineering effects on design.

Calatrava enjoys using structural elements as the main theme for his designs, but ones which are unusual and have a quirk which is almost organic. He has also incorporated moving components into many of his designs, which he claims adds another dimension to form. Therefore his house would likely have exposed structural components and have moving parts, such as an apple box in it which transforms the central space.

example of an "Apple Box" in design - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFo3rl1a9C0

Santiago is also a prolific sculptor and painter, so a large workspace would be needed. His wife runs his business across the world, so a relatively large study or office space would definitely be necessary. His sons have all moved out of the family home and so only 2-3 bedrooms would be needed (master, daughter and guest).