At its core, the purpose of architecture is to provide shelter. For a building to go further than this basic purpose, it must delight our senses, the way art delights, touching those who encounter it. There are few individuals today who can produce this sensation better than Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. Calatrava is among the world’s most successful and sought-after architects today. Since his first major project (Zurich’s Stadelhofen station in 1990), the 74-year old architect has amassed a series of prestigious commissions as well as a string of awards from the profession. While his success has seen the opening of studios in Dubai and New York, it is in a studio on a quiet, leafy street close to central Zurich where he spends most of his time.

“Each morning, my journey begins exactly at six,” Calatrava says. “I pour coffee, feed our family dog, Stella, then let her roam the yard. Then, I ride my bicycle 20 minutes to a local tennis club near Lake Zurich.” After playing for an hour, he cycles home. With a shower and breakfast done, Calatrava begins his creative work on that modest studio he used to paint from nine to noon.

If not architecture, Calatrava could well have been an artist. In his hometown of Valencia, he was first enrolled in an art school at a young age. And to walk through his atelier is to see traces of his artistic streak in every corner – there a painting of a charging bull, here a skeletal hand, and over there, bodies suspended in mid-dance, and a dove in mid-flight. “I find much beauty and inspiration in the natural world,” Calatrava admits. This inspiration flows into his architectural work, which is always delightfully sculptural. He has a way of manipulating steel, glass, and concrete into something soft, working through these materials the way a sculptor does. Examples abound. Anyone who has been to the iconic City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia can attest to the genius of Calatrava in delighting the senses with one after another architectural spectacle, from the Science Museum to the Palau de les Arts which hosts performing arts programs, to the Umbracle, a huge, open-access garden covering more than 17,000 m² where visitors can stroll around and take in the sight and smell of Mediterranean plants and contemporary sculptures. Indeed, the entire complex is a monument to modern architecture at its best.

The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain

The Saint-Exupéry TGV Station (Lyon, France)

If anyone could design a train station to take one’s breath away, it is Calatrava. The Saint-Exupéry TGV Station in Lyon is the terminus for trains connecting the airport to downtown Lyon, a distance of 30 kilometers. Calatrava designed it in his signature style, making generous use of biomorphic forms that reflects his other passion (art), resulting in a structure that, despite its huge size, constantly suggests the idea of movement and mobility.

Visitors enter the Main Hall through a “Gateway” formed by a concrete V-shaped abutment that join the ends of four steel arches. The center pair of arches follow the line of the roof to form a spine. The outer curved beams span over two glazed symmetrical concourse wings.