Santiago Calatrava’s Ciudad de las Artes y Las Ciencias
Santiago Calatrava’s Ciudad de las Artes y Las Ciencias

Mrs. Crowley 12/06/12 Mrs. Crowley 12/06/12 Fernando Praza
A study of Santiago Calatrava’s Ciudade de las Artes y Las Ciencias including in depth looks at El Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia, L’Hemsiferic, El Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe, L’Agora, and L’Umbracle.

Fernando Praza
A study of Santiago Calatrava’s Ciudade de las Artes y Las Ciencias including in depth looks at El Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia, L’Hemsiferic, El Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe, L’Agora, and L’Umbracle.

Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………..……………..3
El Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia…………………………………….……….………4
L’Hemsiferic………………………………………………………..…………………8
El Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe…………………………………….….…..10
L’Agora……………………………………………………………………….….…..13
L’Umbracle……………………………………………………………………..……16
Conclusion………………………………………………………………..…………..17
Figures………………………………………………..………………………………19
Sources………………………………………………………………………………..28

Throughout history, there have been many examples of architecture, and each culture has added different elements to the progression of architecture. From Stonehenge to Falling Water, architecture has grown and evolved with the changing cultures, climates, and eras. Architecture has progressed from a basic need for shelter, to an art form all unto itself. One of the most prominent architects in modern day history is Santiago Calatrava.
Santiago Calatrava was born in 1951 in Valencia, Spain, where he studied architecture and structural engineering throughout his young career. He went on to receive a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland with his doctoral thesis being “On the Foldability of Space Frames”1. Calatrava spent most of his early career working on bridges and railway stations. With his creativity and use of space he drastically changed the civil engineering field. With works such as Bach de Roda and the Alamillo bridges, Calatrava transformed the art of bridge building into a whole new concept1. Calatrava quickly began to show an ability to manipulate space and create buildings that were very modern and yet very natural. Most of the bridges and buildings he has created all have very soft lines and curves. You do not regularly see jagged edges and sharp corners in his work, which is common in modern architecture. Calatrava’s reputation continued to grow as he commissioned other famous works such as the Lusitania Bridge in Merida and the Campo Volantin Footbridge in Bilbao. In 1989, Calatrava opened up his second office in Paris. His works became famous around the world for their unique design and creativity1.
One of his most famous works is La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia, Spain. The initial concept of The City consisted of three buildings; a communications tower, which was going to be the third largest in the world, a planetarium, and a science museum. However, there was much opposition to The City because critics said it would be a “Pharaonic” work1. Eventually the project gained traction and Calatrava, along with fellow architect Felix Candela, began working on the project in May of 1991. Construction, however, did not begin until the end of 1994. The concept behind the project was to restore an area of Valencia that had long since been rejected, and create a meeting place for knowledge and entertainment. Calatrava’s design was going to launch Valencia forward into the third millennium, and create a modern center for The City to rotate around. The concept behind The City is to combine the theme of nature, as Calatrava does in a majority of his work, throughout the entire space1. The City of Arts and Sciences quickly gained notoriety and fame for its innovative design and large scale spaces. In total, The City engulfs 350,000 square meters and stretches for two kilometers. It is commonly referred to as a “city within a city” due to its large stature and high profile buildings.
The City of Arts and Sciences consists of multiple buildings, bridges, and walkways that all bring their own unique characteristics to the overall design of The City. The five main buildings are El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, L’Hemsiferic, El Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe, and L’Agora (Figure 1)1. These buildings show four concepts that Calatrava uses throughout most of his work. The first concept is the influence that human bodies and natural forms have on his designs. Another key concept of many of his designs is that they are based from models found in mathematics and physics. The third concept is how the lighting and airiness of his buildings are related. The final concept is that he believes that buildings work better if they have a form that follows the function1. These main buildings dominate the skyline of The City and create a powerful presence near the coastline of Valencia (Figure 2). The City also includes many bridges and walkways that are very unique unto themselves such as L’Umbracle. The beauty of The City lies in the combination between the elements of nature and the futuristic look of The City as a whole.
One of the most famous and innovative buildings in The City of Arts and Sciences is El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Figure 3). The last structure to be completed in The City, El Palau was opened on October 8, 2005. It is a 17 story building, with 3 of those floors being below ground, which lies on the western side of The City. It rises to a height of 246 feet, which makes it the tallest opera house in the world1. The building has four different auditoriums which are used for different opera, theatre, and music shows1. From the outside, El Palau is astonishingly vibrant and complex. It has multiple levels and plenty of different faces. When looking at the elevation, every angle gives you a completely new perspective on the building. With curtain walls on the front and back faces of the building, The Palace incorporates many different, unique qualities that make it so astounding.
The overall shape of the building is lenticular, and has been described in many different ways. This structure has been described as “random volumes which become unified through their enclosure within two symmetrical, cut away concrete shells, crowned by a sweeping steel sheath.”6 Some say that it looks like a ship with round portals, other say it looks like a futuristic version of a Trojan helmet. The most structurally spectacular part of the building is the roof, also known as the “feather plume.” It is a 755 foot long roof structure that consists of two “shells” which embrace the outside of the building. This structure is constructed out of laminated steel and weighs about 3,000 tons. It also has mosaic work, trencadis, on the outside that makes it glow during the day and night. The feather plume is held up by two supports, one in the middle and one on the western end. This means that the eastern end is projecting over the entrance way, giving it a majestic look. The projected end of the structure also serves as a covered plaza for guests to gather before and after shows6. This is a very public part of the building. The shells also serve a dual purpose, they hide all of the core parts of the building, making it seem airy and light, while also providing a lateral brace for the structure. This duality between beauty and functionality is very common in The City and most of Calatrava’s work.
Another impressive feature of the exterior is the two narrow sheaths that cross over the entire structure. They are supported on the western end but hang freely over the span of the building and join the projected end of the building on the east side. This, along with the suspended end of the structure, allows the structure to do something that is very common in most of Calatrava’s work. It creates an illusion that the building is on the brink of movement. The sheaths get much thinner at the bottom and it seems like the structure is pulling away from West to East7. Calatrava also created some other very unique features in the structure of El Palau. Around the entire structure, Calatrava placed cantilevered platforms at different heights, with walkways and vegetation, which can be accessed by panoramic lifts and stairs located inside metal housings on both sides of the building7. The contrast between the opaque sheet steel housings and transparency of the vast spaces creates a contrast in perspective as you walk around the building. This gives the building great circulation since it can be viewed from all angles with the wraparound decks. These decks wrap around the entire perimeter of the building and have multiple areas where the shows going on inside can still be viewed, due to the curtain walls (Figure 4). These curtain walls help give the building a futuristic look as they tend to look like visors on a helmet. They also serve to allow natural light to enter the building from all sides, creating well lit interior spaces in the building1.
The entrance of the building is not in the middle of the path due to the symmetrical sheaths. Due to this, there are two symmetrical entrances on either side of the sheaths that lead to the interior. The interior of the building opens up with two symmetrical side corridors that lead to the meeting foyer that lies around the main hall. The foyer provides a perimeter route to access all of the rooms beside the hall. Multiple spiral ramp staircases lead to the many different exits at different heights (Figure 5). The circulation of the interior is very natural. It is not linear, centralized, or clustered, but rather circular in its pattern and unfolds throughout the entire building. It has a very natural progression that leads to the many different rooms and halls throughout the building. The building is very symmetrical along the longitudinal axis. Its lenticular shape allows it to provide a balance throughout the entire interior1.
As a whole this building is a little different from the rest of the buildings in The City of Arts and Sciences. While most of the other buildings in The City are designed off of natural concepts such as animal forms, El Palau was designed with a more nautical theme. This theme is played out throughout the entire building, including where it is standing. El Palau sits above the Turia riverbed which dried up many years ago. There are some themes in El Palau which Calatrava displays throughout The City and throughout most of his work. An example of this would be his combination of modern architecture with natural shapes. Calatrava has an amazing ability to combine very modern looks to his buildings, like the Palace, while still maintaining very smooth contours and shapes. He is also able to use plenty of natural lighting with his use of curtain walls, which gives the interior of the building a more natural, open feel, as opposed to being closed off to the outside1. The building as a whole is a great example of Calatrava’s creativity and it has been revered as one of the best opera houses in the world.
Another extremely impressive building in Calatrava’s City of Arts and Sciences is L’Hemsiferic (Figure 6). L’Hemsiferic is one of Calatrava’s most famous and influential works and is the centerpiece in The City. It, as most of the buildings in The City do, serves multiple purposes. It is a Planetarium, Imax Cinema, and Laserium1. This was the first building to open in The City, in April of 1998. It consists of an oval roof over 328 feet long that covers the hemispheric projection hall dome3. The reason for its international fame is due to its extremely unique design. Calatrava designed this building to look like an eyeball. It has become known as the “eye of knowledge.”3 Its elevation is extremely unique due to this eyeball effect. The dome of the planetarium acts as the white eyeball while the surrounding roof acts as the eyelid7. It is surrounded by a large pool that covers approximately 260,000 square feet, which has glass at the bottom of it. This causes the building to reflect off of the water and create the illusion of an entire eyeball (Figure 7). The concrete socket of the eye incorporates elongated aluminum awnings that differ in length and fold upwards collectively, or as individual units, to form a brise-soleil roof that opens along the curved central axis of the eye shape.7 This roof offers no structural support to the dome. Two concrete arches support the covering on the East and West sides of the dome.
The plan of L’Hemisferic is very circular in its layout. It consists of multiple concentric circles of different sizes, all centered on the dome (Figure 8). This makes it a very symmetrical building along the longitudinal axis of the building. The building is can appear to be an eye from either side since it is symmetric. The approach to the building is a very linear progression as it has the vestibule hall at the entrance. It then opens up into the perimeter ring which is very open and encircles the entire dome. It is commonly used for a variety of events since it is protected by the external roof, or “eyelid.” The perimeter ring has a lot of natural lighting since the external roof is made with curtain walls that allow the natural light to penetrate through. This is also what allows the inner dome to be seen even when the roof is closed. This gives it a consistent look whether open or shut. Then there is the dome itself. The dome can hold over 300 people and has a concave screen with a surface area of 9,688 square feet and has a diameter of 24 meters. It is used for all sorts of shows and entertainment.
L’Hemsiferic, much like El Palau de los Artes Reina Sofia, is a building that involves the idea of motion. L’Hemsiferic actually uses motion to create the illusion of an eye blinking. Calatrava designed the covering so that when it opens and closes around the dome, it gives the appearance of an eye blinking.3 Although this serves no structural purpose, this idea of making the eye “blink” makes the building move and come alive5. This is an example of Calatrava’s use of physics, mathematics, and motion to make a building be more than just a structure. He also incorporates another use of apparent motion in this building. Much like El Palau¸ the East entrance of the building is composed of two arches that contain glazed doors that open upwards6. This façade creates an appearance of the doors as wings, which make the building seem like it is on the verge of flying away (Figure 9). This is very similar to the way the thing sheaths in El Palau make it look like the building is trying to pull away.
As a whole L’Hemisferic is a very unique building that cannot be duplicated. Its use of motion, natural lighting, and natural themes are what make it such a famous building. This building is very representative of Calatrava’s work as it incorporates many of the themes he likes to use in his work, and especially in The City of Arts and Sciences. The unique concept of designing a building to take the shape of an eye, and then even be able to make that eye blink, is an example of why The City of Arts and Sciences, and Calatrava himself, is so famous around the world.
Another truly unique building in The City of Arts and Sciences is El Museu de les Ciencies Principe (Figure 10). El Museu is the science museum in The City. It began construction in 1996 and opened in November of 2000. It covers roughly 440,000 square feet. It is a three story building that is surrounded by clear swimming pools on all side. It serves as a multifunctional science exhibit with multiple rooms and theatres that all provide for a wide range of shows and displays. Some of the exhibitions and shows include the Theatre of Electricity, Space Cadet School, Foucault’s Pendulum, Forest of Chromosomes, Zero Gravity, MARVEL Superheroes, and Science and Sport with Valencia CF.4
This building ties into the concept that Calatrava developed of nature. El Museu is designed to resemble the skeleton of a prehistoric whale (Figure 10). The structure of the building is exposed and acts as the spine of the whale which appears to be diving into the pool. The external structure is connected and supported along the center of the building by five “trees” located side to side6. These serve as piers that support the connection of the two facades of the building. The north façade is a curtain wall with steel bracing and spans along the entire length of the building6. The south façade is made of white concrete framework that is filled with glass as well (Figure 11). Calatrava made no effort to hide the frame with any sort of covering, therefore exposing the structural aspects of the building. He used this to achieve his “spinal” appearance, since the core of the building is made up of transverse sections that repeat along the length of the building, thus looking like the spinal skeleton of a prehistoric whale. Calatrava uses a lot of repetition and symmetry throughout El Museu. Both the north and south facades are examples of how he uses repetitive shapes to create the unique look of the whale. The building is also very symmetrical.
The entrances of the building are marked with triangulated structures on both ends(. The north hall has similar proportions to a Gothic cathedral nave, with flying ribs and a waving curtain wall that runs the full length of the building4. The circulation of the building is very linear in its nature (Figure 12). The entire site is rather rectangular, which leads to a very linear transgression throughout the building. The main entrances are located on the east and west sides of the building. There is, however, a cantilevered walkway that is projected over the pools below, that provides access to a side entrance of the building. To access this side entrance one must walk up the walkway from either the east or west sides. This walkway is supported by the ribbing along the north face of the building.
Another key aspect of the Science Museum is the lighting. El Museu is home to many different exhibitions and exhibits which all require the space to be very well lit. Calatrava was able to provide natural lighting to all of the sections of the building with the curtain walls that he uses along the north and south faces of the building. This provides the interior rooms with a lot of natural lighting throughout the course of the day. This natural lighting also serves a dual purpose. The second way that the design for natural lighting affects the perception of the building has to do with its natural light and airy feel. Much like Calatrava’s other main buildings in The City, El Museu has glass which allows the majority of the building to seem transparent. In this particular case, the curtain walls allow the line of sight pass right through the walls of the building and focus on the exterior structure of the building (Figure 10). This was instrumental in achieving the skeletal look of a whale. If the walls had not been transparent, but rather opaque, then it would be nearly impossible for El Museu to appear as this giant whale.
Calatrava successfully continued many of the themes he developed in The City in El Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe. He was able to continue to create a balance between modern structures and natural themes. His ability to create the skeleton of a prehistoric whale using modern techniques such as the curtain wall continues the theme of nature that is carried throughout the entire City. Another theme that Calatrava continued to develop in El Museu was the idea of building in motion. By surrounding the museum in pools and then making the museum look like the skeleton of a whale, Calatrava creates an implied motion yet again. There is a sense that the building is ready to come to life and go back to its natural habitat in the pools. Lastly, Calatrava continued to show a balance between creating a mammoth structure and making it seem almost light. Although El Museu encompasses 440 thousand square feet, it seems to be almost weightless.
Another one of Calatrava’s famous building in The City of Arts and Sciences is L’Agora (Figure 13). L’Agora was opened in 2009 and serves as a multifunctional space. It rises to a height of 262 feet and covers a total area of 54,000 square feet. It can reach a maximum seating capacity of about 6,000 people, depending on how the space is configured. It has been used for a variety of occasions including the Valencia Open 500 ATP in its inauguration in 20091. Calatrava designed L’Agora as a tribute to ancient Greece. In ancient Greece the Agora was used as a place where people could gather. Calatrava designed L’Agora to be such a place. He intended for L’Agora to be a space where different events could take place and where people could come together to experience shows, sports, or even theatre. It has the highest seating capacity of any of the buildings in The City and can be quickly adapt to become any sort of stage or arena.
L’Agora stands out in The City because it is the bulkiest of the main buildings. It has an elliptical pointed shape that is very hard to match. It is also the only building that is almost entirely another color besides white. Although Calatrava does incorporate a lot of natural lighting, as he does in all of the other buildings, the sides of the building are all opaque and painted blue. The natural light enters through the roof of the building which is made up of glass panels that scale from one side of the building to the other. The roof can also open slightly to accommodate for different environments. The structure of the steel building is held up by repetitive steel pillars that go along the two sides of the building7.
This building is another example of Calatrava’s use of repetition. He repeats that pattern of the pillars along the facades of the building and repeats the glass panels along the roof (Figure 14). There is no defining section of the building that is unique from the rest. He also incorporates a lot of symmetry in the building with the elliptical base. The building is identical from the front and back and from side to side. The building also has a very centralized circulation, due to its elliptical plan. Once you enter the building, your line of sight is geared to the center, which is usually where the event is taking place. The interior is usually set up so that there is a full 360 degree view of the events that take place. This means that you can be anywhere on the inside of the building and be able to view what is going on.
Calatrava was able to create a great tribute to ancient Greece in his creation of L’Agora. It is the best place to gather large crowds for any sort of event. It is also a colorful outcrop in the skyline of The City since it is the only structure that incorporates color. This was very important in setting L’Agora apart from the rest of the building as the meeting place or public center of the city. This unique steel structure is just another example of how Calatrava really takes into account every aspect of a building when creating a building that has a purpose. L’Agora has proven to be a major success visually, structurally, and socially, holding many major events in its short history.
Another truly unique feature of The City of Arts and Sciences are all of the bridges and walkways that connect these spectacular buildings together. Calatrava originally began his career designing bridges and roadways so he understood the importance of not only creating beautiful, unique spaces and buildings, but being able to connect them together. A lot of times architecture is focused very heavily on the building itself and doesn’t take into account how to get there. Many great buildings have been considered failures because the architect simply did not try to envision the configuration of the path leading up to the space. Calatrava did not make that mistake. In The City Calatrava incorporated the movement from building to building into his original planning and design.
One of the clearest examples of Calatrava’s attention to the path-space relationship is L’Umbracle (Figure 15). Being the entry point to The City, L’Umbracle is a spectacular example of Calatrava’s versatility. It is a walkway that is 1,050 feet long and 200 feet wide. It consists of 55 fixed arches and 54 floating arches that reach a height of 60 feet (Figure 16)9. These arches are repeated along the length of the path, and due to their overwhelming nature, create a feeling that they extend forever. The walkway is fully landscaped with plants that are indigenous to Valencia. It is also lined with art of all forms, including many sculptures. It is designed to be a place where art and nature combine to create a peaceful and welcoming space. Surrounded by pools on either side, it gives the appearance of a bridge crossing a moat to enter a castle. The path configuration is very linear and is really successful in transferring the public from outside to inside.
L’Umbracle serves a dual purpose, however. Not only is a beautiful promenade, but beneath lies the parking for The City (Figure 17). This is another example of how Calatrava disguises functionality with beauty. Instead of creating a parking structure and trying to make it fit into the city, he simply hides the structure beneath this beautiful promenade. The two story, below ground parking structure can fit up to 665 cars and 25 buses. This is a truly unique feature of L’Umbracle.
The walkway and parking structure show a lot of Calatrava’s unique abilities and themes. The first is his ability to create structures that are successful both from a structural sense and a visual sense. He is always able to combine the purpose of a building with its visual effects. L’Umbracle is also continues his theme of the balance between modern structures and nature. Although the arch is a very old concept, Calatrava reinvents his design with the 54 suspended arches that repeat along the length of the walkway. The shape of the arch itself is not standard and gives a more modern take on such a classic structure. Calatrava is then able to combine this modern looking arch with all of the nature within. His use of landscaping in L’Umbracle is another example of how Calatrava ties in nature throughout The City of Arts and Sciences.
The City of Arts and Sciences is a great example of Calatrava’s unique ability to combine nature and structure. He is notoriously known for bridging the gap between structural engineering and architecture, and The City is a great example. With his use of modern building concepts such as curtain walls, he was able to develop structures that are structurally spectacular from an engineering standpoint. He did not stop there however. Not only did he create these structural wonders, he made them visual wanders as well. All of the buildings in The City are truly unique buildings that cannot be reproduced. He also continues his theme of nature that he uses in many of his other projects, such as Turning Torso in Sweden. His inspiration for many of the buildings in The City is clearly from nature. Ideas such as the spine of a whale, and the eyeball, are both examples of how he draws his designs from nature and the world around him.
Calatrava is also able to do something he has not done in any of his other projects. Since this is the first project where he was able to create not only one building, but an entire group of buildings, Calatrava showed that he could create a space where everything is tied together. His ability to combine all of the buildings both visually, and through the paths such as L’Umbracle, is truly spectacular. Each building is not only a wonder on its own, but a combined city that can truly take the breath away (Figure 18).

Images

Figure 1: Layout of the City of Arts and Sciences.

Figure 2: View of The City of Arts and Sciences skyline.

Figure 3: El Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia

Figure 4: Walkways in El Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia

Figure 5: Section View of El Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia

Figure 6: L’Hemisferic

Figure 7: Night View of L’Hemsiferic.

Figure 8: Plan and Section Views of L’Hemsiferic.

Figure 9: View of the Entrance of L’Hemisferic.

Figure 10: El Museu de les Ciences Principe Felipe

Figure 11: Elevation View of El Museu de les Ciences Principe Felipe

Figure 12: Plan view of El Museu de les Ciences Principe Felipe

Figure 13: L’Agora

Figure 14: Elevation View of L’Agora

Figure 15: L’Umbracle

Figure 16: Arches of L’Umbracle

Figure 17: Section view of L’Umbracle

Figure 18: View of the City of Arts and Sciences
Sources
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