Valencia Oceanogràfic
Spain CCC ES
Felix Candela
2003
Type
Museum
Tags
cultural facilities, landmarks, Spain ccc
Visitability
Allowed
Description
The Oceanogràfic of Valencia is the latest work by the architect Félix Candela, who was born in 1910 and graduated in architecture in Madrid in 1935. After the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile in Mexico, where he spent most of the rest of his career. His work is characterised by an interest in reinforced concrete shell structures, which he used to develop a language that was not only based on a profound knowledge of structural engineering, but also gave his architecture a significant artistic expression. The Oceanogràfic, inspired by his previous work on the Los Manantiales restaurant in Mexico, develops the geometry of the hyperbolic paraboloid, which is the key to building roofs that can be considered as sustainable structures due to their efficient use of concrete. The Oceanogràfic in Valencia is a fitting epilogue to Candela’s work, whose idea of the concrete shell structure stems from the teachings of the civil engineer Eduardo Torroja.