By the fifties and sixties Felix Candela managed to become one of the stars of the architectural world and in 1971 he joined as a professor at the University of Illinois (Cuento Ruiz Funes 40).Ĭandela's Creations: Iglesia de la Medalla de la Virgen Milagrosa Within ten years of arriving in Mexico, Candela began to stand out for his parabolic projects and by 1957, Candela had covered Mexico City with umbrella-like structures at a rate of 25,000 square feet per week. He was initially given a position as an assistant on a construction site in Chihuahua and by 1948 had sufficiently honed his craft to start his own architectural firm, Cubiertas Ala in Mexico City (Garlock and Billington 63).The company revolutionized construction by introducing a building technique first developed by Candela that used thin layers of concrete to form parabolic structures. Like many of young exiles, when Candela arrived in Veracruz at the age of 29, he had almost no professional experience. After four months in the camp, Candela was selected to travel to Mexico aboard the Sinaia (Faber 12). As a captain, Candela fought in the Battle of the Ebro, and was later interned in the Saint Ciprien concentration camp in Perpignan (Cueto Ruiz-Funes 40). However, because he couldn’t afford to pay for his diploma, Candela failed to obtain his professional title.ĭuring this same period, Felix joined the Republican troops with his brother. With his aesthetic inspiration already taking shape, Candela completed his degree in 1935. It was at that moment that the architecture student began the mathematical calculations for what would become his most famous form- the concrete shell. One day, after leaving the university, he looked on as Eduardo Torroja built a thin shell concrete vault. During his sixth year of study, Candela discovered the architectural profile that shape his future work. With a natural talent for mathematics, Candela showed an aptitude for creating forms that required detailed calculations. In memorian (1910-1997).As an aspiring architect, Candela entered La escuela de arquitectura de Madrid in 1929. Hopefully the right project will come up one day.įelix Candela. With it being such a beautiful form of design I think that it is certainly a form I’d like to use at some point in my architectural career. But throughout his career he has produced a variety of beautiful designs such as Warehouse Hernaiz, Mexico or the Medalla Milagrosa Church. “Felix Candela has often been called a ‘structural artist’” (page 10) and that is very evident in the design just mentioned. It was one of his last works in 2002 and really summed up his design philosophy one last time. He is responsible for the building L'Oceanografic which is an amazing oceanarium in Valencia, Spain. “Reinforced concrete shells indisputably constituted one of modern architecture’s major challenges” (page 6) and yet despite this candela was “one of the most prominent players in modern architecture’s thin shell adventure” (page 5). From Maillart in 1939 to Candela in 1950, to Calatrava and Meier in more recent times these shells have always been an amazing form of design and one that is very technical but also very worthwhile. This week’s reading was about an article covering a history of the uses of concrete shells in architecture and how Felix Candela used them in his designs and how they were subsequently used by others.Ĭoncrete shells in architecture have been around for a very long time. From thin concrete shells to the 21st century’s lightweight structures
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