Major Works
Spanish-born Félix Candela (1910-1997) is acknowledged as a master builder and structural artist who designed and built great thin shell concrete roof structures of the hyperbolic paraboloid geometric form in Mexico. The exhibition examines a number of Candela's major structures including his self-identified favorites—the Cosmic Rays Laboratory, built for the Ciudad Universitaria near Mexico City; Restaurant los Manantiales, on the canals of the floating gardens at Xochimilco; the Chapel Lomas de Cuernavaca; the roof of the Bacardi Rum factory north of Mexico City; Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal; and the notable umbrella shells that comprise the bulk of his work. The scope of the exhibition covers the entire building process, from renderings and structural models to construction and completed functional buildings, and seeks to demystify and “humanize” the discipline of engineering, identifying the distinction between structural art and science or architecture. The objects on view not only reveal Candela's understanding of engineering principals and the construction process, but also convey the emotional power and significance of his structures.
Cosmic Rays Laboratory
Umbrellas
Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
Chapel Lomas de Cuernavaca
Los Manantiales Restaurant at Xochimilco
Bacardí Rum Factory