Undeniably Santiago Calatrava is one of the greatest architects to walk on this earth, a gift from god to mankind. One of his projects which is the Turning Torso caught my attention, the high rise building’s unique design consist of nice cubes twisting towards the waterfront and surrounding. Calatrava got his concept from a man’s body figure, which is explained thru his sketches above.

During my presentations, the lecturers would ask for the concept of my design, and like what they’ve always emphasize on, a concept should be something non-physical, you cannot touch nor feel it thru any physical contact. A concept should be an idea, for example concepts of my design can be axis, simplistic, cubic, deconstruction, and many more. The idea should be abstract and not take the form of an object and remodel it into your design.

Calatrava uses a man’s figure as his concept and if I were to do the same, I would have to repeat my design class for the rest of my student life. Design is all about ideas and it doesn’t matter if the end products take the shape of a man or an object, it is how well one can persuade their listeners to agree with them.

"There was a wish to get something exceptional," Calatrava said after accepting a prize from local authorities. "I also wanted to deliver something technically unique." - Santiago Calatrava

Turning Torso - Official website
Architecture Sketches - Source of information for this article

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