Art: FELIX CANDELA: ARCHITECT OF SHELLS

CEMENT was known in ancient Crete; both Romans and Phoenicians used concrete. The shell as a form has fascinated man since he first learned to crack an egg. But it was not until mid-19th century engineers first reinforced concrete with iron ribs that concrete-shell construction suddenly opened up an exciting array of new architectural solutions to the age-old problem of providing shelter that is both economical and sound. Today, after decades of experiment and mathematical computation, concrete-shell constructions are at last coming into their own.

One of the best of the new magicians of concrete is Mexico’s Felix Candela, 48, whose soaring shell structures are the pride of Mexico City, useful for everything from churches to bandstands. A Spanish-born architect who was once Spain’s ski champion, Candela fought with the Loyalists (his brother, now his business partner, served with Franco), migrated via a concentration camp to Mexico in 1939. Fascinated as a boy with the way Spanish masons formed domes of hollow bricks, Candela went on to study the reinforced-concrete forms developed by Spain’s Eduardo Torroja and Switzerland’s Robert Maillart. In 1950 Candela made his-mark by designing (with Architect Jorge González Reyna) a concrete shell for Mexico’s University City Cosmic Ray Pavilion so precisely engineered that its minimum thickness where it had to carry little weight was cut to a mere five-eighths of an inch.

Candela moved on to experiment with conoids, folded slabs and elliptical domes. In a land where steel is costly and labor cheap, he proved that he could use concrete shells to build a big church for $41,000, a warehouse for as little as 50¢ per sq. ft. Clients, including real-estate developers in Texas and a restaurant chain in Florida, have found them not only cheap but handsome. In his just completed lagoon restaurant (opposite), done with Architect Joaquin Alvarez Ordoñez, Candela uses undulating folds of great elegance. For his Santa Fe bandstand, done with Architect Mario Pani, he combined six hyperbolic paraboloids to form a 40-ft. cantilever of shelter. Candela has designed another bandstand that will soar out 120 ft.

Candela works from intuition and experience, later proves out his drawings with “rather boring, lengthy” computations, likes to be his own engineer and contractor. With a host of sail-thin forms to play with, Candela feels architects are on the verge of a whole new architecture. “Shell construction covers great space with a minimum of material, and it is interesting and attactive besides.”