![]() Time and architecture published in 1941 he was to discover Maillart, who had in 1939 completed the barrel vault of the Cement Hall at the Swiss National Exhibition. Candela again began to collect papers on the subject. In Mexico after several years as a draughtsman, designer and contractor he was to recall his: 'old fancy with shells'. He arrived on 13 June 1939, with his uniform of a Captain of Engineers, his only possession. After four months he was allowed, with several hundred fellow Republicans, to emigrate to Mexico. Defeated, they escaped to France, where they were interned. But on the eve of his departure the civil war broke out and he enlisted enthusiastically in the government forces. On graduating in 1935, Candela won a scholarship to study the use of concrete in Germany. Torroja was building the roof of the Fronton Recoletos in Madrid at the time, and Freyssinet and Finsterwalder were pioneering shell structures in France and Germany. As a result, I became more familiar with the theoretical basis of the current methods of calculation of indeterminate structures.'Ĭonsequently he became fascinated by the shell structures that were becoming fashionable at the time. This gave me the opportunity to do some private tutoring to my classmates which was a very useful way to pay for my studies. He noted that 'most students considered the subject useless for their professional practice and as it required some knowledge of mathematics, it was very difficult for them to pass the examination. I am a contractor.' Which is not how he began.Ĭandela studied architecture in Madrid in the 1930s, discovering a natural talent for geometry and a fascination in the theory of structures. ![]() 'Not that I am an artist, or a saint or a religious man, I am not even an architect,' he is quoted as saying. A man who was impressed by Maillart's faith in the intrinsic nature of structural beauty, he created hundreds of breathtaking shell structures - many of which are works of art. Felix Candela, who died last month, trained as an architect, but was one of the great inspirational engineers of the 20th century. ![]()
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