OPIS
Santiago Calatrava first made a name for himself in the late 1980s with delicately designed structures in Zurich that seem to grow out of the earth. He went on to create a series of highly innovative, iconic bridges across Europe, and in recent years he has drawn attention for such large-scale projects as the City of Arts and Sciences in his birth town, Valencia; the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro; and the World Transportation Hub at Ground Zero in New York. Originally trained as an engineer, Calatrava has, at heart, always leaned more towards artistic endeavours than purely structural ones: an entire floor of his residence in Zurich is devoted to creating paintings and sculpture, which he has pursued throughout his career.