Calatrava

Lyon, Saint Exupery Airport

I bought a Calatrava book last night, to reward myself for making it half way through the exams. I like architecture books because there are more pictures than words. And also because architecture's practicality/utility and its ability as an artform to engage people on a conscious and subconscious level appeals to me. When I took this photo, the ignorant piglet that I am, had no idea that it was a Calatrava piece. I knew it had a sculptural feel to it, and I thought the columns had a Gaudi-esque appearance. I should have connected it after seeing his Turning Torso in Malmo but I think it was all the thoughts of Steph's Mama's cooking and the bottles of Cotes du Rhone that distracted me. Apparently, the airport terminal is "surely one of Calatrava's best known works". Ok. Enough said.

"art must be considered as a source of ideas for architecture. 'Why do I make drawings of the human figure?' The artist or the architect can send his message across time by the very force of form and shadow. Rodin wrote, 'Harmony in living bodies is the result of the counterbalancing of masses that move; the Cathedral is built on the example of the living body'. Let me give you an example of the importance of art for 20th century architecture. When Le Corbusier wrote 'Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light' in 1923, how many people knew that he was borrowing from the thought of the sculptor Auguste Rodin? In 1914, in his book Les Cathedrales de France, Rodin wrote, 'The sculptor attains great expression only when he gives all his attention to the harmonic play of light and shadow, just as the architect does.' The fact that one of the most famous phrases of modern architecture was inspired not by an architect but by a sculptor underlines the significance of art."
~ Santiago Calatrava