wrong structural calculation for Calatrava

[iaakuza]

Today, i read an interesting (I hope) news about the Calatrava's bridge in Venice in the economical journal "Il Sole-24 Ore". He designed the bridge and made the structural calculations but Mr Lorenzon, the director of the company which is building it, found out many mistakes in the technical drawings. He corrected them, even though Calatrava said the structure was perfect, and after he was fired... let's say... very funny
For more info:
Il Sole-24 Ore (n°220)
or
http://iaakuza.blogspot.com/

[one very bored guy]

Ummm, what's new here. Calatrava is an architect. Architects design buildings. It's then up to the civil engineer to make them stand. The same thing happens with most major buildings around the world. The original Jørn Utzon design of the Sydney Opera House would never have stood up.

The fact this made it into the news just goes to show how little journalists often know about the things they report.

[iaakuza]

Sorry to bother you, but in reality Calatrava is also an engineer (he enrolled in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland for graduate work in civil engineering. In 1981, after completing his doctoral thesis, "On the Foldability of Space Frames", he started his architecture and engineering practice). He always quite concerned about technical stuff, and in this example, his staff made the structural calculations... but unfortunately they were wrong