2. EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
born on July 28, 1951 in a town of benimamet, near Valencia, Spain.
From the age of 8, he also attended the arts and crafts school,
At the age 13 he was an exchange student in France and traveled to study
in Switzerland.
 He earned a degree in architecture and took a post-graduate course in
urbanism.
Being attracted by mathematics, calatrava decided to pursue post-graduate
studies in civil engineering, so he was enrolled in the federal institute of
technology in Zurich, Switzerland in 1975.
 he received his doctor rate in 1979, during that period he met and married
his wife, who was a law student in Zurich.

3. 
Santiago calatrava is a man of his time; an architect of public space, who has
total conscience of the political and social function as well as the aesthetics of
it. He is a ‘monumental’ architect. This comes out of the result exactly because
he knows what public space and modernism means.
-evangelos venizelos
Minister of culture

Calatrava is not just an architect, he is an engineer and an artist a homo
universalize of the 21st century.
-dimitrios pantermalis
professor of classical archaeology

4. PHILOSOPHY

5. 



The works of gothic
Works of antony Gaudi
human figure and nature’s creativity
Experimentation with materials and their
properties
opera de Tenerife
San Sebastian - Bodegas Ysios

6. 



blends impressive visual style and the strict rules of
engineering
Symbolic AND recognizable the world over for the
sense of movement captureD in a stationary object.
long sweeping lines, stark white materials and a
flawless use of glass and light.
Had a definite vision of inside and outside, the
concave and convex, of how we face the specific world

7. HSB,
TURNING TORSO,
MALMO,
sweden

8. HSB Turning Torso is one of the tallest residential
buildings in Europe and holds apartments, offices
and meeting facilities.
The vision of HSB Turning Torso is
based on a sculpture called Twisting
Torso by Santiago Calatrava himself.
Inspiration from the human body in a
twisting motion.

10. BUILDING FACTS
•190 metres high
•Consists of nine cubes with five floors
each.
•Together with intermediate floors a
total of 54 floors.
•Each floor has 400m² of available space.
•147 apartments from cube three to nine.
•meeting facilities on the two top floors.
•Each floor consists of a square part around the core and a triangular
part which is supported by an external steel structure.
•The entire construction twists 90 degrees on its way up with each
floor tilting by 1.6 degrees

11. MAY 2003
KEY DATES
•Ground breaking 14th Feb 2001
•Construction started June 2001
•Casting of foundation March 2002
•Foundations complete August 2002
•Completion date November 2005
JAN 2004

12. CUBE 5
CUBE 9
CUBE 3
CUBE 7

13. RECEPTION

14. Plan of a typical floor

15. Plan of connecting
floor

16. LOUNGES
AT FLOOR 43 &
49

17. GYM , SAUNA ,
JACUZZI
43RD FLOOR

18. CONFERENCE &
PARTY
FACILITIES
7TH FLOOR

19. FACADE
•facade is a glass and aluminum construction
•2,800 panels and 2,250 windows
•Follow the twist of the building, the windows are
leaning either inwards or outwards by 0 to 7
degrees.
ROTATION OF FLOORS
Forms for the floors were rotated approx. 1.6
degrees for each floor in order to create the
characteristic twist of the building.

20. OUTER STEEL SUPORT AND
SPINE
•The steel support is a welded construction with
a very thorough paint treatment for optimal
protection against corrosion.
•The outer steel support consists of a steel
column and 20 horizontal and 18 diagonal ”steel
cigars”

21. LIFTS
•3 lifts service the residential part of the
building and HSB Turning Torso Meetings
•Two separate lifts service the offices :
ensures high capacity and minimum
waiting even during “rush hour” and in
the instances when a lift is closed for
maintenance.

22. APARTMENTS

23. APARTMENTS

24. SHEETING & FOUNDATIONS
Foundation: built directly on the
limestone bedrock.
Profiled steel plates, forming the
foundation shaft, were driven 15 m.
into the ground and a further 3m into
the limestone bedrock
Concrete beams, poured at regular
intervals on the inside of the sheeting
to stabilize the steel lining against the
pressure of the soil outside
Concrete construction was poured
onto the bedrock, 30 meters in
diameter and 7 meters thick

25. CLIMBING FORMS AND BEAMS
each cube were made with socalled self-compacting concrete.
Because of its flow capacity, this
type of concrete does not need
vibrating.

26. PANAROMIC VIEW FROM THE 3RD CUBE:
1ST APARTMENT LEVEL

38. COMMERCIAL SPACE
• The total commercial space is
approximately 4,000 m² in the lower two
cubes i.e. 10 floors.
•The commercial area has its own lifts and
all conceivable comforts in heating,
cooling and IT systems.

39. HSB Turning Torso
Meetings
• On the two top floors, 53rd and 54th.
•attractive and inspiring meeting facilities.

40. SOME OF
CALATRAVAS
MOST
FAMOUSE
STRUCTURE
ALL AROUND
THE WORLD.

41. Milwaukee arts museum

42. L’Hemisferic, Valencia Planetarium, IMEX Cinema

43. LYON AIRPORT STATION, FRANCE

44. BARCELONA COMUNICATION TOWER, BARCELONA, SPAIN

45. 80 SOUTH STREET TOWER, NEW YORK CITY

46. AUDITORIO DE TENERIFE, SPAIN

47. SOME OF
CALATRAVA’S
MOST FAMOUSE
BRIDGES ALL
AROUND
EUROPE

48. PONT D’ ORLEANS, FRANCE

49. ALAMILLO BRIDGE ,SEVILLE SPAIN

50. SUNDIAL BRIDGE AT TURTLE BAY, REDDING, CALIFORNIA

51. Puente de la Mujer, Buenos Aires, Argentina

52. CHORDS BRIDGE, JERUSELAM

53. conclusion

54. APPRAISAL
•The elemental and lyrical forms of Calatrava’s architecture, known and
loved across the globe.
•Santiago Calatrava exemplifies sculptural expression and engineering
through architecture. Calatrava’s work is like music: well orchestrated
•Although his buildings were known for their aesthetics,
they never compromised on the grounds of functionality
•built energy efficient structures
•The fact that much of his work is centred around
water which adds a further dimension to his work.

55. CRITICISM
•Often criticized for impracticality
•the mechanical instability of the structure and the
excessive weight of the bridge
•Economy
•The trainstation Gare do Oriente in Lisbon is known
for being very uncomfortable, especially with wind
and rainy weather.
TRANSTATION GARE
DO ORIENTE, LISBON,
PORTUGAL