Félix Candela

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Félix Candela Outeriño (born January 27, 1910 in Madrid , † December 7, 1997 in Durham, North Carolina ) was a Spanish - Mexican - American architect.

Life

Candela studied architecture at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid from 1927 to 1935. He then studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando with Eduardo Robles Piquer and Fernando Ramírez de Dampierre . During this time he also got in contact with Eduardo Torroja and was able to deal with his experimental techniques of concrete shell construction. For his diploma thesis on the influence of the new trends in reinforced concrete construction technology on architectural design, he received a scholarship from the San Fernando Art Academy in order to be able to complete his doctoral thesis in Germany, but was able to do the study trip because of his involvement in the Spanish Civil War as an engineer and officer of the Republicans not perform.

After the end of the civil war, he emigrated to Mexico in 1939 and took on Mexican citizenship in 1941. His actual career as an architect began in Acapulco with the design of a few houses and hotels. In 1950 he founded the concrete construction company "Cubiertas Ala" with the architects Fernando and Raúl Fernández Rangel . In 1953 he received a professorship at the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). In the meantime he was lecturer at the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University from 1961 to 1962 .

In 1971 he went to the United States , where he received US citizenship and a professorship at the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1978 . From 1979 he was also a specialist consultant at the architecture company " IDEA Center ". Candela was the recipient of important awards and a member of numerous international architectural associations, including chairman of the International Architecture Academy in 1992.

Works and projects

Pabellón de los Rayos Cósmicos
(1950/1951)
Mexico City
Bacardi factory
(1959–1960)
Cuautitlán
“Palacio de los Deportes”
(1965–1968)
(1968 Summer Olympics)
Mexico City
“L'Oceanogràfic”
(1994–2002)
Valencia

Candela was considered a master of concrete shell construction for elegant, formally sophisticated, easy and inexpensive to construct vaults. His “Pabellón de los Rayos Cósmicos” ( “Pavilion of Cosmic Rays” ) in Mexico City, which was completed in 1950/1951, pointed the way for many of his other buildings. For "Cubiertas Ala", founded in 1950, which specialized in the production of thin concrete building shells, he carried out more than 300 projects, among others together with Enrique de la Mora and Fernando López Carmona . His works also include religious and commercial buildings. Only the “ Palacio de los Deportes ” ( Sports Palace ) was realized from his designs for various facilities for the 1968 Summer Olympics . The large aquarium "L'Oceanogràfic" designed by him in the Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias in the Spanish city of Valencia was only completed after his death in 1997.

Important structures
  • "Pabellón de los Rayos Cósmicos" (1950–1951)
  • "Medalla de la Virgen Milagrosa" church, Navarte, Mexico (1953–1957)
  • "Celestino Fernández" factory, Vallejo settlement, Mexico (1954–1955)
  • Mexico City Stock Exchange (1954–1955)
  • "Nuestra Señora de la Soledad" chapel, Coyoacán , Mexico (1955)
  • Quiosco de Música ( music shop ), Santa Fe , Mexico (1955–1956)
  • "San Antonio de las Huertas" chapel, Tacuba , Mexico (1956)
  • "La Jacaranda" nightclub, Acapulco, Mexico (1956–1957)
  • "Los Manantiales" restaurant, Xochimilco , Mexico (1956–1957)
  • Open Chapel ( Capilla abierta ) in Lomas de Cuernavaca , Mexico (1957–1958)
  • "San Vicente Paul" Chapel, Coyoacan, Mexico (1959)
  • "Santa Mónica" chapel, San Lorenzo de Xochimancas , Mexico (1959–1960)
  • Bacardi factory, Cuautitlán , Mexico (1959–1960, in collaboration with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe )
  • Hotel Casino de la Selva , Cuernavaca , Mexico (1960–1961)
  • "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" Church, Madrid, Spain (1962–1963)
  • "Church of the Lord" in Campo Florido, Mexico City (1966)
  • " Palacio de los Deportes ", Mexico City (1965–1968)
  • "L'Oceanogràfic", Valencia, Spain (1994–2002)

Awards

Quote

Regardless of the idea, the details followed later; they have nothing to do with calculation, but are a matter of feeling and sculpting .

(From: Enrique X. de Anda Alanis: Félix Candela 1910–1997. The mastery of borders . Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-8228-3723-8 , blurb)

literature

  • Salguero Ramon Vargas: Federico E. Mariscal: Vida Y Obra (Spanish), UNAM, ISBN 970-32-1253-0 .
  • Enrique X. de Anda Alanis: Félix Candela 1910-1997. Mastering the limits. Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-8228-3723-8 (short summary of life and work, excellently illustrated).
  • Massimiliano Savorra: Félix Candela, Pier Luigi Nervi and formalism in architecture , in P. Cassinello (ed.), Félix Candela , Madrid 2010, pp. 155-167
  • Massimiliano Savorra: La forma e la struttura. Félix Candela, gli scritti. Milan 2013

Web links

Commons : Félix Candela  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Felix Candela. In: arch INFORM . (based on the entry by Barbara Borngässer-Klein in the general artist lexicon )
  2. ^ Félix Candela in La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencas , photoAleph.
personal data
SURNAME Candela, Felix
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Candela Outeriño, Félix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish-Mexican architect
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Madrid
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1997
Place of death Durham, North Carolina