Félix Candela

Félix Candela Outeriño (1910-1997) is one of the most surprising and intriguing of architects in the 20th-century history of Mexico City. His experimental hyperbolic paraboloid forms often draw the attention of international visitors.

Born in Madrid, Candela arrived in Mexico in the late 1930s with his degree completed in 1935 at the height of the Spanish Civil War. By 1941, he'd acquired Mexican citizenship and he began designing homes and hotels in Acapulco. In 1953, he joined the Faculty of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). There one can see his striking amphitheater for the Faculty of Chemistry and the famous Pabellón de Rayos Cósmicos.

The architecture firm Candela founded with his brothers completed an outstanding 836 projects in about 20 years between the mid 1950s and 1976. His paraboloid designs were used for parking lots, gas stations, and churches. Many of them remain among the most unique and even startling designs in and around Mexico City.

In 1971, he emigrated to the United States and accepted a professorship at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He continued to work on international projects until his death in 1997.

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