félix candela builder of dreams

edited by

Fausto Giovannardi

Felix Candela Builder of dreams

2

At the beginning of modern, steel

manufacturers said the impulse to create

new models. The next innovation to wrap

the concrete has led to materialize the

most extreme forms: the boldness was

accompanied to the imagination and the

forms and materials have been adapted

at all efforts. One of the main protagonists

of this development was around the

middle of last century Félix Candela

(hereafter FC), who is remembered for

his extraordinary roof of reinforced

concrete shell, the shape of hyperbolic

paraboloids.

La obras mejor es la que sostiene por

su forma.1

Eduardo Torroja Life

Outeriño Félix Candela, was one of the

most important architects of the twentieth

century. His adventurous life can be

divided into three periods, matching his

stay in Spain, Mexico and the United

States.

The first period runs from birth, in Madrid

on January 27, 1910, until the end of the

Spanish Civil War

in March 1939.

Son of traders from

Crevillente

(Valencia), which

1 The best work is that it maintains for its shape.

tells you not heard the call, which seems

to have had other famous architects or

engineers, but that had little since the

desire to build. Completed higher studies,

is enrolled in the School of Architecture in

Madrid for the event or the advice of a

friend. Now you wilt in the study of

descriptive geometry, and the third year

in the Resistencia de Materiales, who

studied with Professor Luis Vegas, where

he became a student assistant. His

interest in the artistic aspects was very

low, and also in the field of design is

declared incapable. Its focus was entirely

on the technical side of architecture and

usually for exact sciences.

In Youth FC was a good athlete and won

several national competitions in alpine

skiing and rugby team.

The years of its formation were years of

great political and cultural effervescence,

culminating in 1931 with the proclamation

of the Second Spanish Republic, which

put an end to the monarchy of Alfonso

XIII. The cultural openness of the new

government allowed the proliferation of

new and different philosophical and

artistic trends.

He graduated in 1935,

immediately opened a

small studio with

Eduardo Robles and

Ramirez Dampierre.

While arrangement giving repetitions and


3

doing small jobs, Candela deepened the

study of structure design of steel and

reinforced concrete. The shell structures

that are built in Europe in the twenties

(Dischinger in Germany, Freyssinet in

France, Nervi in Italy and Eduardo

Torroja in Spain, etc.) Drew the attention

of very young Candela, so much so that

in 1936 won a scholarship Study of the

Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando,

with the argument: "The influence of new

trends in the technique of reinforced

concrete above the Architectural Form".

Decided to use the prize for an internship

in Germany and Finsterwalder

Dischinger, had already purchased the

train ticket to leave on July 18 1936,

when the news came the attempted

military coup by the troops of Francisco

Franco, and Félix Candela not departed.

Shortly after it enlisted, the army as a

volunteer Republican to defend the

legality of golpisti against Franco. Years

later, thinking back to this choice, FC

showed no regrets, and indeed said: "I

could not even benefit from the

knowledge of German professors,

learned some lessons from the revolution

and civil war, I was very useful."

FC was assigned to Comandancia de

Obras to Albacete and shortly after was

promoted to Capitán de Ingenieros. The

civil war 2was long and ended with the

victory of the nationalists of Francisco

Franco. After a long retreat through the

Pyrenees, the group Candela found

refuge in the concentration camp at

Perpignan, France, where he remained

for four months as an exile3, the fate

wished that her name was among those

that Mexico was willing to accept .

Candela landed at Veracruz (Mexico) on

June 13 1939. Among the more than a

thousand exiled Spaniards, who were

welcomed in Mexico, 25 were architects,

and Felix Candela one of the youngest. In

addition to Spanish, other architects also

2 The Spanish Civil War breaks out in 1936. The general elections of February 16 left-wing forces are returning to the government, through the first experiment of Popular Front. On July 18, however, the situation falls: some military garrisons arise against the Republican government ( "alzamiento") and General Franco arrived on the national soil with the colonial troops from Morocco. It is the beginning of the civil war, with serious repercussions on the international level. Spain is the scene of the first armed clash between fascism and antifascism, with the participation of many intellectuals from all over the world, from the U.S. (from Dos Passos to Hemingway), and with the Italians - the Mussolini black shirts from a hand, and the anti-fascists and anarchists on the other - committed on both sides. The war will end at the end of March 1939 with nearly one million dead and the victory of the nationalists of Francisco Franco and the establishment of a dictatorship based on the legislative power of the "Caudillo" and the repression of opponents (the "Feroz Matanza "), Which will last until 1975 and cause the deaths of 200,000 anti-fascists, hundreds of thousands of people sentenced to various penalties, 300,000 exiles. 3 France recognized the Franco government, and then exiles became a problem.


4

arrived foreigners fleeing from totalitarian

regimes in Europe, as Cetto and Hannes

Max Meier.

The arrival of this flower technicians

coincided with a period of great

development for the Central American

country, where government incentives

construction, to meet the popular demand

of residences.

Thus beginning the second period of his

life. Initially settled in a Spanish colony of

exiles, 100 km north of Chihuahua, where

shortly after she married Eladio Martin,

who knew from Madrid. In 1941 both took

the Mexican nationality. Since their

marriage were born four children:

Antonia, Teresa, and sister Pilar and

Manola.

During the years 1941 and 1942 Felix

Candela worked in Acapulco, in

partnership with a manufacturer. It then

moved to Mexico City to work with Jesús

Martí, a refugee himself Spanish, who

directed a study of architecture. There it

remained for four years, probably the

most peaceful of his life, working on the

construction of many residential buildings,

and the reconstruction of the Casino de la

Selva in Cuernavaca, recently returned to

the fore because nearly destroyed to

make way for a supermarket4. In just

4 A serious attack on the World Cultural Heritage has been made in Cuernavaca in Mexico: the destruction of the Casino de la Selva, the Mexican Sistine Chapel. " The Mexican weekly 'La Jornada' reported the protest of Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez who, along with a group of intellectuals, will

created a hotel and a cinema in

Guamúchil and built its first line of section

(at trial) and then apply it in the draft of a

ural school in Tamaulipas.

The gain realized that he was sufficient to

come to Mexico, Spain, his mother and

his sister Julia and also shortly after his

brother Antonio5.

Confident and optimistic for the prospects

of his work, decided to found a building

contractor specializing in roofing. Thus

cubiertas Ala, a company with the

architects brother Raul and Fernando

Fernandez Rangel, who was also

participate Antonio and Julia.

In this endeavor Felix Candela was

architect, engineer, consultant, computer,

contractor and manufacturer. His first

contract was a block of apartments with

shops on the ground floor. The structural

submit to UNESCO a project to transform the Casino de la Selva in an International Institute of the Arts. The building was a 'work of famous Spanish architect Felix Candela that ahead of the curve, the known hazards hyperbolic parabolic dome. The demolition, authorized by the Municipal Presidency, started by the U.S. supermarket chain Price costs, continuing with considerable environmental damage by the Wall-Mart, even without the permission of Environmental Management. A massacre aggravated by the destruction of works of art of painting murals that were inside the complex, signed works by Siqueiros, Orozco, Rivera, Silvio Benedetto, Atl, messenger, Camarena, Renau, Meza, Flores, Ballester, Gonzales, Cueva Del Rio, Pena, Icaza. An even ecological disaster, one that involved the "Jardin de l'Art" (another name of the Casino de la Selva). The weekly Valencia 'El temps' in an article entitled "Vandalism in Mexico'" the complaint also killing lots of trees. 5 The Rangel brothers were members for only 3 years. Felix assumed the presidency, while Antonio who was master builder, took care of yards and Julia administration. The company will operate until 1976, but will leave the Félix Candela in 1969.


5

calculations and drawings executives

were treated to the smallest details. The

same client then entrusted the

construction of Hotel Catedral in calle de

Donceles (DF) on draft Nabor Carrillo,

who later become rector of UNAM6.

While working hard, Candela continued to

study and to upgrade. Reading an article

about Winter Grorge Journal of the

American Concrete Institute, which

discussed the construction of times a

double curvature, rekindled his interest

for the young thin shell structures. He

began to search for articles and, after

having translated with the help of the

dictionary from English, French and

German, began to study them in depth,

seeking the ability to calculate these

structures using the simplest of those

classics. A second trial, he was standing

in the soil of the Fabric Fernàndez. Issue

once conoidale 15 x 6 meters, with a

thickness of 3 cm, supported on the

sides, two strings of different bolt, one of

them very low, much to generate a

fortuitous double curvature surface.

In 1951 Candela achieves coverage that

will give him international fame: the

Pabellón de rayos Cósmicos. A small

pavilion 12 x 10.75 meters, designed by

Jorge González Reyna and build within

the university campus, to host a

workshop.

6 National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Specialist for measuring neutrons. The

request was that of the coverage had a

thickness not exceeding 1.5 cm. Candela

propose to use a double curvature

instead of the cylindrical coverage

provided in the draft Gonzàlez Reyna,

arguing that this gave the geometric

stiffness needed to allow the execution of

a cover thickness. This was the first

example in which Candela used a

solution of parabolide hyperbolic (or

Hypar7), a geometric shape that had

studied in an article published in 19368,

and that will come to know and dominate,

used with great virtuosity, to generate

those Manti soft and sinuous that

7 The structures in the shape of hyperbolic paraboloids (Hypar with the abbreviation USA) in architecture have been realized for the first time dall'ingegnere Russian Vladimir Shuklov (1853-1939), which rifece to areas with double curvature, defined by analytically Russian mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky. The first structure was the coverage of the Russian pavilion of 1896 to Nizhny Novgorod. 8 F. Amond “ Etude statique des voiles minces en paraboloidee hyperbolique travaillant sans flexion” Zurich,1936


6

constitute its most emblematic creations.

The success that got him exclaim9: "que

es fácil hacerse famous", and such a

strong stimulus for creative and

confidence in their skills. He began to

write articles about his work and sent one

of the first, entitled "Consideraciones al

Diseño de Estructuras de Reforzado

Concrete", all 'ACI Journal, who refused

because little technical. (The newspaper,

two years later, he accepted his job

"Estructuras de Simples Concrete"). In

1951 presented an essay, "Hacia una

nueva de las Estructuras Philosophy," the

Mexican Scientific Congress II.

Meanwhile (1953) became a professor

and then head of the department of

architecture at the University of Mexico

City.

From the construction of Pabellón de

rayos Cósmicos, Candela began to

receive assignments of greater

importance. Mostly worked with his

company cubiertas Ala, as a collaborator

of the main architects Mexicans10, who

9 “por fin, al cumplir los quaranta anos, descubrì asombrado que mi desordenata y casual formaciòn parecìa haber sido misteriosamente dirigida en un determinado sentito que me permitia encontrarme preparado para la labor que tenìa que ejecutar” F. Candela: En defensa del formalismo y otros escrittos , Xairat Ediciones, Bilbao 1985 , p.9 10 The key collaborations:

Los Almacenes de Las Aduanas (customs warehouses) Vallejo, 1953 with Carlos Recamier. The markets, built between 1955 and 1956 in Coyoacan, Azcapotzalco and Anahuac, with Pedro Ramirez Vàzquez and Rafael Mijares. The Restaurant at Los Manantiales Xochimilco, in 1958, with Joaquin A'lvarez Ordoñez The Capilla de abierta Palmira in Cuernavaca in 1959 with Rosell and Manuel Guillermo Larrosa. Then there is a long and fruitful relationship with Enrique de La

had their increasingly capricious projects,

he was almost a magician. Candela

defined geometrically, regularized,

rejected what seemed illogical and

transformed ideas into a project, which

instructed the calculation of the building

and then convert the idea into reality. In

regards wrote in 1959: "My main job is to

simplify and regularize the rough and I

have to convince that the outcome is not

in constructing forms extravagant, but get

things simple, carefully studying the

details." 11

Between 1951 and 1953 created 5

residential buildings for the periodic

Novedades, who drawn between its

subscribers, in the Jardin del Pedregal,

within the revolutionary project of urban

Luis Barragàn. Candela used shells, as

interp, but the experience is not found

positive and not the shots anymore.

A year after he built his own house, a villa

in traditional Mediterranean style, a

Tlacopac, in the south east of Mexico

City. In this regard commented: "I will not

chance to show my house a few architect

,..., all hope that living in a monstrous

Mora Lopez and Fernando Carmona, which began in 1955 with coverage of the stock market (Bolsa de valores) of Mexico, the various churches: el Altillo (Coyoacan, 1955), San Antonio de las Huertas (DF, 1955), San Jose obrero (monterrey, 1959), San Vicente de Paul (DF, 1959), which continued even when the two architects are separated in 1960 with the church of Santa Monica Lopez of Carmona and in 1963 with the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Madrid, which was the first by a Mexican architect in Spain and which marked the return of professional Candela in his native homeland. In last collaboration with Santiago Calatrava for the project of 'Oceanographic in Valencia, work completed posthumously. 11 F. Candela, “Carta de Fèlix Candela al director” in

Arquitectura, Madrid Ottobre 1959


7

turned with the roof and walls of glass." 12

In this period Candela built the first

prototype paraguas (umbrella).

Quadrangular coverage consists of four

timpani of hypar, supported by a single

central pillar, which found space inside

the pipe rain. Because of its cost-

effectiveness and speed of construction

(you could reuse the same housing), this

structure had a huge spread and was the

kind of coverage required by most

builders and architects Mexicans, for

industrial buildings and above all service

stations.

In its 26 years of operation (1950-1976)

the company cubiertas Ala performed an

impressive number of works: 1439 drew

up plans, which were built 896, of which

over 90% were industrial buildings. The

period of increased activity was between

1956 and 1960, five of which were built in

a total of 395 works.13

Among the

works of the

company

cubiertas Ala

are worthy of

mention, in

Mexico:

12 Giral, A. « la arquitectura de Fèlix Candela » in

AA.VV.El desierro espanol en America. Madrid Min. Cultura. 13 Tabla de obras de Cubiertas Ala, Germenon Salum

da Juan Tonda Magallón Ediciones Corunda 2000 Mexico DF

Atzeca Stadium, the University Theater

Center and the Electronic National

Autonomous University of Mexico, the

monumental arch of Monterrey, and in the

international arena, the Cuban

Presidential Palace, whose creation was

decided before the fall of Batista, the

Auditorium of Cartography of Caracas,

the Auditorium of Maracaibo, the

Hemisfair Tower of San Antonio, the

Crystal Palace in London and the sports

complex at the University of Rhode

Brown Island.

They were the years when Félix Candela,

now considered the main designer of

times in the world, was a constant

presence in magazines worldwide, and

was invited to give lectures in many

universities, mainly in the U.S.. His

reports were always an example of

simplicity and they confirmed the

skepticism of youth compared to the

complicated calculations of the theory of

membrane

structures. The

criticisms made to

the theory that the

role of practice,

created hostilities

within the many

small circuit of

international specialists.

In July 1961, in London, during the

congress of the International Union of


8

Architects (UIA) he was awarded the

prestigious Auguste Perret Prize for the

excellence of his work. A month after he

was decorated with a gold medal that the

Institution of Engineers structural

engineers assigned to the best structural

engineers in the world (before him:

JFBaker in 1052, Eugene Freyssinet

1957, Hardy Cross 1958).

In 1963 his wife died five years later she

married Candela, the architect U.S.

Dorothy Davies.

The last important work of Felix Candela

was the Palazzo dello Sport for the

Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968,

built in collaboration with Enrique

Castañeda and Antonio Peyre, which

replaced the use of shells of concrete, not

suitable for large lights , With an

economic and ingenious semi-metal

structure, divided into panels that are

inserted elements shaped paraguas,

covered with plates of copper. The effect

is that of the shell of a large turtle, which

has become a symbol of the Mexican

capital. In 1971, after nearly two decades

teaching at the National Autonomous

University of Mexico, decided to emigrate

to the U.S., to teach at the University of

Illinois. This influenced the decision, the

misunderstandings with the management

of the Faculty of Architecture, the new

American wife and the decline of his

company cubiertas Ala, a consequence of

the fact that times had changed and there

were no more conditions (suitable for

manod'opera and low so, flexible rules

and creativity) of the gold. And then

starts the third period of his life, in which

Candela had a profound transformation

professional and creative led him to

abandon his work as designer

/manufacturer. Moved to Chicago where

he was a full-time professor at the

University of Illinois from 1971 to 1978,

when it adopted U.S. citizenship. Do not

let all of his creative work, is associated

to the study Idea Center in Toronto and

attended to ambitious projects, including

the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid

(that project was not realized), the City of

Sport in Kuwait, the Islamic Cultural

Center Madrid, a tower of offices in

Riyadh, an airport in Murcia, coverage for

a stadium Islamic University in Riyadh,

the Feria de Muestras of Marbella, the

Legislature of Veracruz, the Master Plan

of Islamic, the Prosecutor of Xalapa hotel

in Cancun, and ultimately the City of Arts

and Science in Valencia, with space built


9

in the park where Oceanographic

coverage of access and the restaurant

are underwater parabolidi hyperbolic

concrete, made in collaboration with

Santiago Calatrava, which has the merit

of making worthy tribute to this great

teacher, for too

long forgotten.

Is to Valencia, as

a result of again

of an old heart disease, Félix Candela

returned to the United States, to Raleigh

in North Carolina, where he lived from

1990 to be admitted all'Hospital de Duke,

where he died on December 7 1997 .


10

The projects and achievements

Some of the major works and projects by Félix Candela: 1940 Hotel e appartamenti ad Acapulco, in collaborazione con Bringas. 1950-1951 Pabellón de los Rayos Cósmicos, Città del Messico. 1953-1957 Iglesia de la Medalla de la Virgen Milagrosa, Navarte. 1954-1955 Fábrica Celestino Fernández, Colonia Vallejo. 1954-1955 Bolsa de Valores, Città del Messico. 1955 Capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, Coyoacán. 1955-1956 Quiosco de Música, Santa Fe. 1956 Capilla de San Antonio de las Huertas, Tacuba. 1956-1957 Club notturno La Jacaranda, Acapulco. 1956-1957 Restaurante Los Manantiales, Xochimilco. 1957-1958 Capilla abierta en Lomas de Cuernavaca, Palmira. 1958-1959 Basílica de Guadalupe, Città del Messico. 1958-1959 Iglesia de San José Obrero, Monterrey. 1959 Capilla de San Vicente Paul, Coyoacán. 1959-1960 Capilla de Santa Mónica, San Lorenzo di Xochimancas. 1959-1960 Planta embotelladora ditta Bacardí, Cuautitlán. 1962-1963 Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Madrid, Spagna. 1965-1968 Palacio de Deportes per la XIX Olimpiade Città del Messico. 1966 Parroquia del Señor del Campo Florido, Città del Messico. 1994-2002 L'Oceanogràfic, Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia, Spagna.

Roofing read in concrete form of armed

with umbrellas spigolosi (edges) or

sinuous mantle, that Felix Candela built in

the fifties and sixties, made it a symbol of

Mexican twentieth century. As Frei Otto

said: "Candela only managed to convert

the structures laminaria in a work of art."

His greatest contribution in the field were

the structural laminaria concrete

structures, generated from hyperbolic

paraboloids (Hypar), a geometric shape

of extraordinary effectiveness, which in a

draft version, has become the hallmark of

its architecture.

The first shell (cascarones14) that has

built Candela, was once a funicular trial in

the summer of 1949. For its construction

followed the example of some prototypes

built in England during the Second World

War. It seems that the inventor of the time

14 Literally: Shell egg.


11

was Kurt Billing, and the system used to

be called "Ctesiphon", the name of an old

arcade building in Syria. The success

achieved with this experiment

encourages Candela to consider the

possibility of devoting themselves to

building shells. Indispensabie was

proposing something different in order to

survive in the highly competitive field of

construction in Mexico. At about the same

Candela, said: "despite the Mexican

tradition of building curved shapes and

bold, concrete vaults were to look with

suspicion. We thought they were unsafe,

because of subsoil conditions and

frequent earthquakes"

Coverage for a coach was the second

adventure of Candela with hypars. The

shape is very similar to the time of the

Pavilion de rayos Cosmicos But here

were omitted arcs irrigidenti. One of the

edges supports the rocky soil and the

other is supported by a wall of concrete,

the sides of the shell which breaks away

supported by a small support to V.

The commitment with which Candela had

studied the Strength of Materials allowed

him to understand how illusory are the so-

called analysis accurate: "When I started

to build shells, my mind was making from

school. As students we believe in

everything that we is taught, for example,

that there are methods to calculate the

exact structures. I started working to stop

believing in everything that I believed. But

this is a necessary, if one wants to build

something original "

The Pabellón de rayos Cósmicos

designed with Jorge Gonzales Reyna, for

the city university of Mexico City, with its

undulating concrete cover thickness of

only 15 mm, which allows measurement

from the neutron, is one of the most

emblematic buildings of his work. With its

shape, almost a spaceship about to land,

was the first structure acclaimed by all

and that brings fame.

From 1951 to 1953, his work was an

impressive variety. These two years were

essential to understand, almost intuitively

how the shells. Focused on the most

simple, guided by two principles that are

essential in these structures: the static

and geometry. Built short times, prismatic

and corrugated sheets, cones, fan,

domes, almost the entire range of forms

known. In Residence Romero, Candela

had the opportunity to do a cover sheet to

Sinusoidal15. L'inspirazione The inspiration

came from a photograph at Copenhagen,

designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen. The

structure was so obvious that Candela

was "trying to do something similar."

Candela built two more of these

structures. Methods of prefabricated steel

were used for Escuola Montes Alpes and

15 The covers that folded prism or the Germans call

"Faltwerke" and the French "toits plissés" follow the principle of resistance through the corrugated


12

for a seminar. The first is a two-story

structure with light of 8 meters and

sudden changes of 2.5 mt from both

sides. The second has

four floors, and in the

original intentions were

to be six. Probably this

was the first time that

shells were used as

interpiani. But there

were a good solution and Candela came

to be seen as a "search path without

hope." 1952 is working with Guillermo

Enrique Yanez Rosel and to cover the

Auditorium of the Faculty of Chemical

Sciences of the University of Mexico City,

which is formed by two truncated cones,

joined a long common border. The light

cone rising from 9 to 18 meters. The

media were inclined an added feature,

compared to the original plan to improve

its appearance. Candela such comments,

"I thought to avoid the problems of

calculation on the rods and cones as

giving form of line."

This is the only building in which Candela

has worked with cones, and is also one of

the few instances where he worked as a

consultant only and not as supervisor.

In 1953, he built an elliptical dome to

cover with a roof of the residence hall

dance Gallego Center. The dome is

relatively low and based on existing walls,

but since the plant's dome does not

correspond to the walls, his weight is

transferred to them through a complicated

system of rays perimeter. Its strength was

put to the test when

the owners, showing

a confidence that, as

Candela says, "I do

not fully shared," did

you hang in the

center, an old

chandelier weighing over one ton. This

concentrated load huge, so cheerfully

imposed on the dome, was born until

now, without signs of strain.

The simplest structure created with hypar

was the umbrella upside down (paraguas

invertido) which combines four

rectangular sails, divided by straight lines

and is joining the center in a single center

column where the exhaust pipe rain. For

all this was a very simple and economical

to cover the space industry, petrol

stations and other places where moving

vehicles. Umbrellas began to be used for

shelters Input attractiveness of

laboratories, warehouses and other

buildings.

In Candela there are a series of notes

that describe the various types and sizes

possible. One show even an umbrella for

sample plan, designed to resist heavy

loads, dedicated to many car parks plans

or wholesale stores.


13

That this could be a practical solution for

low cost housing was demonstrated by

several hundred units erected on the

plains of Monterrey. The umbrella side

produced a more attractive roof of the

traditional flat plate, usually used in

Mexico for such work. The structure, used

in repeated, was because all the

economic load of the roof were focused

on one point, with the savings resulting in

the foundations of walls that were not

solicited. Candela built for a hotel in

Cuernavaca, thirty bungalows with roofs

that have a similar plant 14 x 7 mt. Their

inhabitants called the "Japanese houses."

Soon this solution consists of a large

number of variants, such as plant forms

with triangular or hexagonal. The use of a

diagonal rib and curve allowed

to increase the size blankets.

Advancing in this kind of

evolution dell'hypar, very soon

discovered they were the main

dishes and horizontal cuts that

are hyperbole from which it

takes its name pompous this surface

almost magical. Uniting them for their

curved edges, is formed when two similar

at the intersection cylindrical cruising

aisles of the ancient churches, often built

with masonry brick or stone. The

difference now is that instead of

intersection of cylinders, it has

un'intersecazione of iperboloidi and

instead of masonry, reinforced concrete,

two important features of modernity.

Subsequently, many works were

performed with the base of a paraboloid

with only the edges limited by arches and

many other combinations were sought

from the edge rectum combined with that

bent. With this last combination was very

spectacular the Church of Santa Mónica,

designed by Fernando López Carmona

and enforced by cubiertas Ala. In its plant

with a fan, ten branches of paraboloid

with a clearance of 30 m that have joined

the center in one sturdy column, which

gives the impression of being a big palm.

Then umbrellas became asymmetric

and with different curvature to allow the

passage of light through this

became suitable for building

churches and other buildings

with more aesthetic needs. So it

came to designing the Church of

the Virgen de la Medalla

milagro.


14

This church, built from 1953, is an

extraordinary building. The powerful

structure is a fearless combination of

deformed surfaces, which create an

impressive interior space. As it seems

chaotic, there is the play of natural forms

of Gaudi and Picasso cubist experiments.

Based on the pattern of a traditional plant

with three naves, at shells coverage of 4

cm in thickness, in this work reaches its

highest expression plastic. Candela

achieves a spectacular and innovative

structure that recalls the gothic

cathedrals, expressed through the

structure a sense of ascension. The main

front is a large triangle, while the front

side is shaped zigzagante generated by

the extremes of the four triangular side

chapels. In fact, the structure of this

church is the result of successive

paraguas, with whom he played Candela,

a modified form and breaking the

symmetry. The columns take a distorted

form, designed intuitively as the loads

that must lead, and there are no capitals

and virtually no communication between

support and coverage, which results in a

single item. Even the high tower is made

with hypars. Developers of the church

wanted a traditional design (in the Gothic

style) and not suspect that they might get

something more. It is as if Candela you

would see how far you can go with this

type of structures. In this respect, the

Gothic church is a triangular, with all its

vertical emphasis. Given the basic idea of

umbrellas and their zigzag edges through

the air, Candela said: "Everything in her

designs are more or less by himself." The

preliminary draft was done in an

afternoon, designed in a week and

calculated during construction. The

calculations (necessarily extended,

because all surfaces have different

configuration) revealed an unexpected

push towards the upper edges of the roof.

The comments on this project led to

Candela wrote: "Sometimes the imposing

stone of the Gothic cathedrals and

Renaissance domes daring were built

without aid of differential calculus, but

instead of it, made use of a great sense

of ' balance and sensible view of the

game of forces, as very necessary for a

manufacturer, much more profound

knowledge of discoveries of mathematics"

In an interview at a premium, Candela

said that this was the work that had given

more satisfaction, and the question of

whether the public liked, said, "especially

for women architects like ,..., not. " 16

Candela in 1955, built by Enrique de la

Mora and Fernando Carmona López a

series of structures. La Capilla del Altillo

had a completely different concept than

16 Ramirez Dampierre in Arquitectura n.30 giugno 1961

Madrid.


15

that of the church de la Medalla milagro.

Artwork created by this collaboration was

the New Stock Exchange of Values of

Calle de Uruguay in Mexico City, which

was built in a coverage of 15 x 26 m and

a height of 8.25 m in the center,

supported in the four corners which was

the first example of an object with the

draft.

This is a particular feature which has

qualified the work of Candela: the

development of the draft. Candela says

have come almost by intuition: "I knew

that the draft was a practice, long before

we intellectually understand how it

worked," and also describes how to

obtain the necessary resistance, "if we

want to keep the edges free, we must

provide some edges or corners, that

reach the ground for inclined lines ... "17

17 F.Candela in Arquitectura/Mexico anno XXX tomo XXIII,n.100 aprile/giugno 1968

From such a time of four branches, it was

proven variant three, five six more

branches, to become a plant polygonal

times with the same solution to iperboloidi

cloaks.

With this type were carried out many jobs,

the most extraordinary of which is the

dining room at the Casino de la Selva in

Cuernavaca (five branches) and the

restaurant Los Manantiales (eight

branches) to Xochimilco, built between

1957 and 1958, the architect for the

project Joaquín Álvarez Ordóñez, where

sometimes polygonal came at 25 and 30

meters in diameter.

Another work is characterized in its great

production, quality and innovative

proposal: the building of bottling factory

Bacardi (1958). For the building of

Bacardi, Candela was inspired to form the

airport of San Luis Minoru Yamasaki of

Missouri. Six large domes of 30 meters of

light and 4 cm thick, arranged in pairs to

form three rows, covering an area of

more than 5000 square meters. Each

dome is a square and composed from

two hypar, with the four sides by


16

archways delimited parabola profile

inclined to "draft", from which, in parts of

fit, vertical triangular sections, sealed

glass, that allow the passage of light. The

outer perimeter arches are closed by

large windows which, the dynamic space,

along with ribs and triangular windows, an

amazing brightness.

The building of Candela is not far from

the project that Mies van der Rohe has

done in Mexico: the place of Bacardy y

Cia. Open as usual Candela, he criticized

the large flat recital coverage against

nature to the concrete work in that form

little logic, and then estrendere dissent

across the rationalist architecture.

In 1961, while he was in London, the sixth

International Congress of Architects, FC

was impressed by the project of the

"itinerant theater," by a young Spanish

student Emilio Perez Piñero (1935-1972)

and won. He began a passionate

friendship and cooperation that is

expressed in the draft competition for the

coverage of the Anoeta Velodrome in San

Sebastian (ES). For this job FC returned

to Spain in 1972. The project provided a

great dome geodetic, obtained the

intersection of three families of arms,

forming reticles regular hexagons and

triangles and a mesh is inserted covering

elements of hypar. Emilio Perez Piñero, a

young genius of the structures, ended his

earthly extraordinary adventure, in an

accident with his Ferrari, a Dali, and

visited some sites.

.


17

One recent work (1967) which was

designed Candela coverage of the hall of

station of Metro Candelaria, which uses

the same kind of umbrella of x14 m 6,

repeated for 22 times, grouped in 11 pairs

symmetrical leaving an aisle Central to

the central zenithal lighting. In these

umbrellas formed a kind of palm leaf with

twelve mantle. The resulting effect is

striking, with the columns (4 meters high)

that seem the trunk of the palm species

naturally.

One recent work (1967) which was

designed Candela coverage of the hall of

station of Metro Candelaria, which uses

the same kind of umbrella of x14 m 6,

repeated for 22 times, grouped in 11 pairs

symmetrical leaving an aisle Central to

the central zenithal lighting. In these

umbrellas formed a kind of palm leaf with

twelve mantle. The resulting effect is

striking, with the columns (4 meters high)

that seem the trunk of the palm species

naturally..

Cubiertas Ala

With his company Cubiertas Ala. were

made 1439 projects, of which 896 built. A

lot of these buildings was an industrial

and well known forms of umbrellas, which

still can be seen in many gas stations and

service of the Federal District (Mexico

City). You must remember that this type

of structure, which has a single central

column houses where the pipe and rain

with only a plinth of Trustees, is one of

the most celebrated contributions to

Candela for its lightness, simplicity and

economy, which have been performed

many works, in which the use repetitive

allowed to cover thousands of square

meters and build industrial buildings

without the need for a real project, but

through a simple procedure that ended up

being standardized.

Roofing shaped hyperbolic paraboloid,

that marked an era dell'architetura

Mexican, could be built only in that place

and at that precise moment, thanks to the

ability and constructive vision of space

Félix Candela and a few other architects

who dominated the complex system


18

needed to develop constructive and

availability of high labor cheap. Works

impossible to achieve in other countries,

because the thin strips of concrete that

comply with these shells, do not comply

with the regulations for construction in the

more developed countries. In this regard

Candela writes:

"The strict regulations of what can be

done, it means virtually impossible

groped for new roads, to evolve and

progress.".18

The key to the process of construction of

the shell was in the complicated

development of housing (Cimbrian),

made with planks of wood panconcello,

which comply with surface turned, that

gave shape to cover. Above the housing

is the armature of small diameter, to form

a lattice above which threw the cement,

to a thickness of 4 cm. As soon as this

had taken detach the housing and the

shell takes its final form. To do this it

needed the participation of many people,

recruited from migration from the

countryside who came to town, and that

contributed work men good low cost.

When in 1964 President Gustavo Diaz

Ordaz, promulgated a law that increased

the minimum wage, los cascarones

ceased to be convenient and enterprise

Cubiertas Ala began its inexorable

18 Look note 17

decline.

Architect or engineer

Many architects say that Félix Candela

was a magnificent structure, but that does

not ever completed its work. We do not

put doors and windows, nor ended the

various installations, and not of concern.

In a word, preparing the structure and

then not occupied most of what happened

afterwards. So, say that he is not entitled

to be between the architects.

Some engineers argue that Félix Candela

was a wonderful architect who did not

know how to calculate its structures,

which often made eye. So modest is its

importance in the history of engineering.

Félix Candela is in a no man's land and is

attacked from two fronts, seemingly

irreconcilable.

Looking at his work is evident that he is

predominantly occupied structures, but

only those that are indispensable for

architecture, not bridges, depots, the

works of their buildings and other

engineering.

In particular, the specific nature of his

work lies in the sensitivity that was in line

with resistant forms.

His biggest contribution in the field of

structural facilities were in the form of

shells, generated from hyperbolic

paraboloid, a geometric shape of

extraordinary efficiency that has become


19

the hallmark of its architecture. Candela has expressed in his work a few ideas:

the idea that the structure must be a poet,

the belief that the structure is shaped

much more than the material used, and

the line of research on reading coverages

of reinforced concrete.

All the work of Félix Candela reaffirms the

role of the designer in relation to

structural problems, for research form of

resistance: the extraordinary relationship

between strength and resistance, he

always sought the shape of the problem,

not the problem of form.

Here's why he was an architect structure

or whether more like an architectural

structure.

Awards

1961 Gold Medal from Istitution of

engineer Structurist, London.

1961 award Auguste Perret from

International union of Architets.

1961/62 Charles Eliot Norton professor

of Poetry dell'Università di Harvard

Cambridge/Massachusetts

1981 Gold Medal of the architectural

1985 Award Antonio Camuñas of

architecture.

Technical and theoretical writings Hacia una nueva filosofia de la

estructuras,Congresso Scientifico Mexico

1951


20

Formulas generales para el calculo de

esfuerzos en paraboloides hiperbolicos.

ACI 1960

En defensa del formalismo y otros

escrittos , Xairat Ediciones, Bilbao 1985

Stress Analysis for any Hyperbolic

Paraboloids Architectural Record (1958)

Bibliografy: Faber, Colin, "Las estructuras de

Candela" , México, Continental , 1970

Juan Ignacio del Cueto Ruiz Funes, “Fèlix

Candela, el mago de los cascarones de

concreto”, in Arquine, rivista internacional

de arquitectura, Mexico, n.2, 1997

Enrique Chao, “Fèlix Candela: una lux

nel corazon” in Construcción y

Tecnología rivista

dell’Instituto Mexicano del Cemento y del

Concreto, Mexico, dicembre 2003.

Juan Tonda Magallòn "Félix Candela”

CONACULTA, mexico 2000

Lorraine Lin, “Fèlix Candela: Creator de

poetic structures 1910-1997”, in Structure

Magazine, aprile 2006.

Juan de Herrera

« Félix Candela, arquitecto.”

Edición de M. Seguí, Madrid; CEHOPU /

1994.

Josemaría de Churtichaga

« La estructura veloz – Trayectorias

estructurale a proposito de la obra de

Emilio Perez Pinero y Fèlix Candela.”

http://chqs.onexp.com/estudio.htm

"My greatest satisfaction was to have performed some spectacular structures ,..., but that he had proved that the construction of thin shells, not an extraordinary undertaking that immortalized its author, but a constructive process simple and flexible .. "

Edizione Dicembre 2006

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