Santiago Calatrava

“We're used to thinking of force as a stable phenomenon, but it has a cinematic variable, which is acceleration.”

“I would like to be an artist who works in a very closed ambience.”

“Imagine for a second that the Golden Gate had not been built. This place in the San Francisco Bay would be one of the many beautiful places along the Pacific Coast - but that's all. Once you...”

“There is a change in the view about how condominiums are designed. People used to make prototype apartments and reproduce these boxes hundreds and even thousands of times, and then ask peopl...”

“Bridges represent archetypal problems. They are artifacts that bring you across or around an obstacle. So they have an unbelievable force.”

“Chicago is a beautiful city with a wonderful skyline.”

“I have built already seven very large railway stations: one in Italy; two in Belgium; and in France, and in Switzerland, in Portugal, and also in the United States. And what happens is that...”

“I think it is important to build for people, and to deliver this message of hope: through good construction and a certain sense of progression, a better understanding of each other can be ac...”

“The Huashan project is a clear example of how an urban element, key to the successful growth of the city, can at the same time improve the quality of life for its citizens, thanks to an inte...”

“Think about what happens when architecture becomes ruins. All you have left are some little columns on a cliff, but it's still such an overwhelming experience that you could say architecture...”

“I understand and accept criticisms of my work, provided they are done with professional criteria and arguments.”

“When I was in architecture school, I became curious about the exact mathematics, physics, and construction of the great structures I had been studying. I wanted to know how these amazing thi...”

“The city of Rio de Janeiro is setting an example to the world of how to recover quality urban spaces through drastic intervention and the creation of cultural facilities such as the Museum o...”

“I've always had a dream about New York. New York is an island… those bridges… the skyline… the dynamism.”

“My goal is always to create something exceptional that enhances cities and enriches the lives of the people who live and work in them.”

“The function of arts centers goes far beyond being places for performance. They might not be explicitly religious, but they are civic and social spaces.”

“It is very important to visit the Oculus at a moment in which the skylight is open. Through the enormous 240′ x 20′ opening, we are framing a piece of Manhattan's sky.”

“A bridge is born of necessity, but it must establish its own identity. It should harmonize with its surroundings, and the design must transcend the purely local and transform the setting.”

“Some have tried to use my work for politics, using inaccurate or out-of-context information that, repeated enough, becomes truth to some even though it is not.”

“I am an engineer, not just an architect, so I've always been motivated by technique or technology. As soon as technology moves just a little bit, it changes architecture.”