Why do you think architecture is important?

What do Spanish people think about Santiago Calatrava's ideas on architecture?

• 00:25 He says that an architect is also a philanthropist. 02:00 "Architecture is often associated to financial and economic concepts" "That the time taken to pay off and investment, must equal the amount that your money would make if you put it in a bank account" "That's ridiculous, because our work survives us" 02:25 "I think that during this economic crisis it's important to create new modern infrastructure, and it presents a unique opportunity to do that in more remote locations". 03:10 "We must continue to do that short of thing" 03:50 "I think that the cost of this projects is nothing compared to the millions, even billions, and thousands of billions, that is being put into a paper economy, a purely administrative economy".

• Answer:

  I'm not Spanish so can't answer this question, but a number of Spaniards are quoted in this recent NYTimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/arts/design/santiago-calatrava-collects-critics-as-well-as-fans.html?_r=0