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Architect Flix Candela becameinternationally renowned for hissurprising, innovative reinforced

concrete shells known in Spanish ascascarones built in Mexico in the 1950sand 1960s. He lived his life, marked bythe Spanish Civil War and exile, inSpain, Mexico and the United States.Born in Madrid, January 27, 1910, in

his youth he was an outstanding studentand athlete, a member of his countrys

national downhill ski and rugby teams.He graduated from the Madrid HigherSchool of Architecture in 1935 amidstthe vibrant cultural upsurge Spain exper -ienced during the Second Spanish Re -pub lic, from 1931 to 1939.From his youth, Candela was attract-

ed by the reinforced concrete shellsbeing built in the first decades of thetwentieth century by Eugne Freyssinet

in France, Franz Dischinger in Germanyand Eduardo Torroja in Spain. In 1936he won a scholarship to study this spe-cialization in Germany, but at the out-break of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), he gave up those plans to vo lunteerfor the army to defend the legally electedRepublican government from FranciscoFrancos fascist army.Candela served as captain of engi-

neers on different fronts. In February

1939, when the Falangist victory waspractically complete, he led his battalionacross the Pyrenees into exile. Afterseveral months of detention in SaintCyprien, one of the concentration campsthe French government had preparedfor the thousands of Spanish refugees,he received the surprising news that acountry he was totally unfamiliar with,Mex ico, would admit him thanks toPresident Lzaro Crdenas administra-tion policy to grant a great number ofRepublicans exile.

The intellectual loss that Spain suf-fered after its civil war was sharply felt inthe field of architecture. Under theFalangists, the postulates of rationalistarchitecture that the Republican govern-ment had begun to officially accept werebanned. About 50 Spanish architects,among them those who subscribed tothe most advanced, progressive ideas,went into exile. Twenty-five ended up inMexico, many with long professional andpolitical careers behind them, like Ber -nardo Giner de los Ros, Francisco Azorn,Toms Bilbao, Roberto Fernndez Bal -buena, Jos Luis M. Benlliure and JessMart. The younger exiles, like Juan deMadariaga, Arturo Senz de la Calzada,Enrique Segarra, Jos Caridad, Juan Ri -vaud, Francisco Detrell, Esteban Marco,Oscar Coll, Ovidio Botella and EduardoRobles Piquer, would develop most oftheir work in their new homeland.Flix Candela, among the youngest of

these, arrived in Veracruz June 13, 1939,aboard the Sinaia in one of the first ofmany expeditions prepared by aid organi-zations for the Spanish Republic thatfacilitated the transport of thousands ofrefugees to Mexico. When these archi-tects arrived in the early 1940s, Mexicowas experiencing an economic boom,which propelled the construction indus-try, thus favoring their integration intothe milieu.The first steps in Candelas profes-

sional career in Mexico were difficult. Amonth after he arrived he was appointed

The Shells of Flix CandelaJuan Ignacio del Cueto Ruiz-Funes*

* Researcher in the UNAM Archi tecture De -partment.

Photos by Juan Ignacio del Cueto

The Bacard bottling plant, Naucalpan, 1959.

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head of construction for the ColoniaAgrcola Santa Clara, in the northernstate of Chihuahua, an attempt byRepublican officials to found a modelcolony of agricultural production to bepopulated by Spanish exiles. The experi-ment failed a year later and Candelawent to Acapulco, where he built part ofthe Papagayo Hotel, owned by EmilioAzcrraga Vidaurreta. In 1941, Candelabecame a Mexican citizen and was givenhis first stable job in the Vas y Obrasconstruction company, headed up by hiscountryman Jess Mart.In late 1946, he left Vas y Obras and

went into partnership with his brotherAntonio, a technical architect, to put upsome buildings in Mexico City, amongthem the Cathedral Hotel on DoncelesStreet. Fortune smiled on them in thoseyears, and they also won the first prize inthe lottery, but they lost the money ven-turing into the movie business with thePelculas Paricutn production company,where they made two movies (Candelahimself called them two real bombs):La venenosa (Poisonous Woman) and Lavirgen desnuda (The Naked Virgin).Candela never lost interest in shells,

and he devoured all the information hecould get about them. In 1949 was ableto put his dreams into practice when hebuilt his first experimental shell. En -couraged by its success and convincedthat a myriad of possibilities were open-ing up in this field, together with hisbrother Antonio, his sister Julia andMex ican architects Fernando and RalFernndez, he opened up the first Cu -biertas Ala construction company tointroduce concrete shells into industrialarchitecture. Acting as architect, engi-neer, consultant, calculator, contractor

and builder, Flix Candela put up thefirst shells that would make him worldrenowned: ruled surfaces (built usingstraight segments) with double curva-ture which, given their hyperbolicparaboloid geometric or hyparform, exclusively transmit compressionstress, making it possible to create con-tinuous surfaces of minimal thickness,in the form of a shell.The covering most often requested

from Cubiertas Ala by businessmen andarchitects was the umbrella, whichconsisted of four hypar segments held upby a central support that looked like anopen umbrella. Quick to make thesame center framework was used to make

several pieces and effective, severalumbrellas could be used to very eco - nom ically put up buildings that requiredlarge covered surfaces, like factories, ware - houses and markets. Many gasoline sta-tions throughout Mexico have this kind ofroof. But the shells that made Can de lasinternational reputation were thosewhose twisted forms were very complex,with spectacular, soft, sinuous forms.Most of his coverings were 4 cm

thick, although on special occasions hemade them as thin as 1.5 cm. This is the

case of the University Citys CosmicRays Pavilion (built in 1951 in collabora-tion with Jorge Gonzlez Reyna), the firstto bring him prestige nationwide. Afterthat, many architects approached Cu -biertas Ala to include different kinds ofshells in their projects. Thus, most ofCandelas work was done in conjunctionwith his Mexican colleagues as an advi-sor on their projects and proposals forcoverings; they usually presented a gen-eral sketch that Candela then definedgeometrically, systematized and turnedinto blueprints ready for building. All thiswon him the name of the magician ofthe shells. His collaboration was funda-mental for the execution of these pro-

jects. His firms client list reads like awhos who of contemporary Mexicanarchitecture, including names like MarioPani, Juan Sordo Madaleno, EnriqueYez, Pedro Ramrez Vzquez, Enriquede la Mora, Federico Mariscal, AlejandroPrieto, Max Cetto and Vladimir Kasp.His reputation spread abroad and he car-ried out projects and construction in theUnited States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Co -lombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guate ma -la, Spain, Great Britain, Norway, Kuwaitand Saudi Arabia.

Los Manantiales Restaurant, Xochimilco, 1958.

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One of Candelas emblematic works,and the only one considered completelyhis, is the Church of the Virgin of theMiraculous Medallion, built in MexicoCity in 1953. This building, with a tradi-tional, three-nave church foundation, iscovered with a daring combination of twist - ed surfaces that create a fantastic interiorspace reminiscent of the spaciousness ofthe gothic and the work of Gaud.Outstanding among the constructions

that he did in collaboration with otherarchitects are the customs warehousesthat he built in 1953 with Carlos Re ca -mier; several Mexico City markets, donefrom 1955 to 1958 together with PedroRamrez Vzquez and Rafael Mi jares;the Los Manantiales Restaurant, built inXochimilco in 1958, with Joa qun Alva -rez Ordez; and the Palmira Chapel,built in Cuernavaca in 1959 with Gui ller -mo Rosell and Manuel Larrosa.Candelas collaboration with archi-

tects Enrique de la Mora and FernandoLpez Carmona, beginning in 1955 withthe roof of the Mexican Stock Exchange,deserves special mention. De la Morascapacity for design and the analytical,practical minds of Candela and LpezCarmona combined to create innovativesolutions for churches built between1955 and 1960: the Altillo, San Antoniode las Huertas, San Vicente de Paul andSanta Mnica Churches in Mexico City,and the San Jos Obrero Church inMonterrey. In 1963 De la Mora was commissioned

to build the Our Lady of GuadalupeChurch in Madrid, which was the firstwork commissioned to a Mexican archi-tect in Spain and signalled the profes-sional though not personal returnof Candela to his country of birth.

At the Barcard plant in Naucalpan,built in 1959, Candela used differentsolutions to cover several buildings.Outstanding among them are the umbrel -las that he put up over the open-air caskstorage area and, especially, the bottlingplant where he put up the largest shellsof his career: six parabolic vaults, eachclearing 30 meters on each side, coveringmore than 5,000 square meters. This workis on the same piece of land as the onlybuilding that the famous German archi-

tect Mies van der Rohe ever built inMex ico: the corporate headquarters ofthe bat brand (so named for its label),Bacard.Over the 26 years Cubiertas Ala

served the public, from 1950 to 1976, itsportfolio grew to impressive proportions:the firm designed almost 1,500 projects,more than half of which were actuallybuilt. The key to building the shells wasthe complicated construction of the wood-en frame for the arch, made of straightpieces of wood that made a double-curved ruled surface that gave it its form.Above the frame, the concrete was pouredinto a fine rigging of rods, and after it setand the frame was removed, the shelltook on its final form. Many low-paid,skilled construction workers were need-ed for this. A government de creed wagehike in 1964 made labor more expensive,at the same time that the price of con-struction materials rose, rendering shellsunprofitable. At that point, Cu biertas Alawent into decline.Candelas last important work in Mex -

ico was the Sports Palace, built in col-laboration with Enrique Castaeda and

Church of the Virgin of the MiraculousMedallion, Mexico City, 1953.

Palmira Chapel, Cuernavaca, 1959.

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Antonio Peyr for the 1968 OlympicGames. For that, they substituted con-crete shells for a more economical, inge-nious metal structure that made it possi-ble to put it up in record time. From thetime it was inaugurated, its great copperroof, reminiscent of an armadillos shell,shining in the sunlight, became a symbolof Mexicos capital.In their heyday, photos of Flix

Candelas work were published in spe-cialized magazines the world over. In 1961,the International Union of Architectsgave him the Auguste Perret prize forexcellence. That initiated an uninter-rupted flow of prizes, homages and invi-tations to lecture throughout the world.The architects associations of Spain andMexico fought over his origins, eachclaiming him as their own, which hedealt with by saying he was an architecttrained in Spain, but realized in Mexico.In 1971, the University of Illinois at

Chicago offered him a full professorship,something the UNAM National School ofArchitecture had never given him sincehe had begun teaching there in 1953.Candela, who had married his second

wife, U.S. architect Dorothy Davis in1967, decided to accept the offer. Hewent to live in the United States inChi cago, New York and Raleigh, NorthCarolina and acquired U.S. citizen-ship, his third.Flix Candela remained faithful to

the Spanish Republican cause and par-ticipated in many activities for the res -toration of democracy in Spain. This ledhim to reject many invitations to visit thecountry of his birth, saying that he would

not step on Spanish soil as long as Fran -cisco Franco was in power. In 1969, hedecided to heed the voices that suggest-ed that his return could help hasten thefall of the dictator, and he accepted aninvitation from the Eduardo Torroja Foun -dation to attend an international congresson shell structures. Thirty years afterbeing forced to leave it, then, he re turnedto his homeland. In 1977, once Spainstransition to democracy had been nor-malized, Candela bought an apartmentin downtown Madrid in the neighbor-hood where he had grown up, and fromthen on he alternated between the UnitedStates and Madrid.In the mid-1990s, his fervent admirer

architect Santiago Calatrava invited himto participate in the project of the Ocean -ographic Park of the City of Arts andSciences currently under construction inValencia. This would be his post humouswork: Flix Candela died in Raleigh,the last of his many homes, in the earlyhours of December 7, 1997, just beforeturning 88.In 1964, at the height of his career, Can -

dela wrote about his work, My greatestsatisfaction is not in having executed cer-tain spectacular structures although Imust confess I enjoyed making them verymuch but having contributed, even ifminimally, to solving the prodigious pro b -lem of economically covering habitablespaces, demonstrating that the construc-tion of shells is not an extraordinary featthat immortalizes its creators, but a simple,flexible construction procedure.1

NOTES1 Flix Candela, Arquitectura y estructuralismo,Arquitectos de Mxico 21 (Mexico City) (January1964).

Interior, Church of the Virgin of the MiraculousMedallion, Mexico City, 1953.

Sports Palace, Mexico City, 1968.