Architecture inspired by Nature. Human body in Santiago Calatrava's works. Sophisticated approach to architectural design

In architecture, Nature has always been a perennial source of inspiration - both in architectural writing and in architectural design. This paper explores the architecture of the 20th century, especially the Santiago Calatrava's works that were inspired by the human body. Calatrava (born 1951) inheriting the achievements of the art of engineering, following his significant predecessors, goes far beyond their approach. His displaying the beauty that often comes with metaphorical captures of floral and faunal structures, as well as the statics and dynamics of the human body. These references to the forms of Nature, are easily recognizable in Calatrava's works. The first part of the paper presents concepts imitation and mimesis within Western traditions of aesthetic. Selected research work and methods in design developed in 20th century, as well as current digital techniques of imitation processes form-finding in Nature also will be presented. The second part deals with the human body as a source of inspiration in architecture and engineering. This part is focused on Calatrava's works such as: Telecommunications Tower in Barcelona (1989-1992), TGV railway station in Lyon (1989-1994), L' Hemisferic in Arts and Sciences Center in Valencia (1997-2001), TGV railway station in Liege (1996-2009), Turning Torso in Malmo, (1999-2004). Through semantic and syntactic aspect analyses, this study will reveal the effects of the inspiration on the formation of architectural and structural forms. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the use of Nature as a model, measure and mentor to solve problems in architecture which creates new pathways for building design in urban space. The transfer between natural forms and synthetic constructs is desirable. Calatrava understands that when engineering is treated as an art of possibilities and creates a new vocabulary of forms, which syntactic and semantic aspects, although based on technical knowledge, is not a praise of the engineering alone.