Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Calatrava VS van Berkel

van Berkel is one of the most famous Dutch architects alive, and his work is appreciate highly by most architects and people. His most famous work is the erasmusbrug in Rotterdam, but in my opinion this erasmusbrug is just a bad copy of the 5 year earlyer maked alamillo bridge (spain) by calatrava. My opinion is that the roterdam government is cheated(for 62,6 million euro) by van berkel with a piece of bad plagiarism.

7 comments:

pimp-a-lot bear said...

they both get you over the river. :)

No, I don't think it's a cheat, Calatrava usesd much longer shapes, and his design is more simplistic.

annom said...

Van Berkels design is definitely not orginal. It isn't a masterpiece of his creative brain, but good copy work.

I really like Calatravas work. It's not only nice for the eye, but also a work of art from an engineering point of view.

I wonder how much design work is actually from Calatraves hand. What does he design, at what detail? How and when does he check if his idea is possible to create within his budget?

Do you know if Calatravas bridge had any problems with vibrations? Van Berkels engineers failed to make a solid bridge.

Kamiel said...

to a pimp named slik: ARE YOU BLIND? stupid fool :p

don't know what exactly is calatrava his work and what the work is frome other engineers/ architects that work for him. I once readed a story with somebody that works for him and he sayed that he hopped to be a very creative job but less was true. The only one that was creative was calatrava and the rest only could work his ideas out, but on the other hand he got 3 big offices around europe working under his name so i doupt how mutch is realy frome his hand. its probley like most architects the big lines are maked by the architects and the office works it farther out to plan and calculate it.

Because the projects that he maked are new experinces for everybody its realy hard to calculate. So it isn't realy an exception that a project is costing way more then it was calculated for.
but its art so we can't complain about money :) nobody complains about leonardo da vince using expensive paper do we?

I never readed anything about vibrations with the bridges of calatrava. maybe because he first did a study engenering bevore he did the study for architects. That engerering study mabye learnd to not only look at the art side of a project but also watch the engineering side of a project.

cybrbeast said...

Here is a picture of a sideview of De Zwaan you can see that there are some differences.
The cables are only connected to the top part, above the bend of De Zwaan.
De Zwaan suspension tower has much less of an angle with the ground than the Calatrave.
De Zwaan is supported from the back, the Calatrave hangs clear in perfect balance.
The Calatrave suspension tower is on the bank, De Zwaan is in the water.
De Zwaan also has a place between Kop van Zuid and the pylon where it can open and let ships go under it.
De Zwaan is 808m by 129m.
De Calatrave is 200m by ??

So on the point of engineering De Zwaan wins. I don't think it's really idea theft cause there are so many design differences.
But the Calatrave wins in the end, cause its design is just much more beautiful.

annom said...

De Zwaan is only 300m from the pylon to the shore.

Calatravas bridge is 142m high.

Calatravas bridge is based on counterweight alone and its pylon doesn't need extra support from cables. It's in perfect balance. I think that makes Calatravas bridge win the engineering price.

cybrbeast said...

Hmm, true Calactrava is the best
But Erasmus is bigger and it can move

ExpendableAsset said...

"but in my opinion this erasmusbrug is just a bad copy of the 5 year earlyer maked alamillo bridge (spain) by calatrava. My opinion is that the roterdam government is cheated"

You just *made* my day.