Felix Candela's Legacy

Abstract

Félix Candela was a world-renowned engineer, builder, and structural artist of thin-shell concrete-roof structures in the mid 20th century. Although a native of Spain, his exile to Mexico at the end of the Spanish Civil War provided the New World locale in which he created all his major works. Through an examination of his self-proclaimed favorite structures (Miraculous Medal Church, Restaurant at Xochimilco, the Bacardi Rum factory, and the Chapel at Cuernavaca), plus his first hyperbolic paraboloid shell (Cosmic Rays Laboratory) and his umbrella shells that comprised the bulk of his work, we give insight into Candela¿s ideas and genius. In this way the legacy of such structural artists provides an essential part of engineering education and of the means for greatly improving the practice of structural design.