CURRENT EXHIBITION

Félix Candela: Engineer, Builder, Structural Artist

October 11, 2008—February 22, 2009

The exhibition Félix Candela: Engineer, Builder, Structural Artist is devoted to the work of Spanish-born engineer, builder, and structural artist Félix Candela (1910–1997). Recognized as one of the few great structural artists of the twentieth century, Candela designed and built innovative thin shell concrete roof structures, mostly in Mexico, using the hyperbolic paraboloid geometric form. The exhibition, a collaboration between the Princeton University Art Museum and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, examines Candela’s process of design and construction through several of the artist’s most significant works, and features structural models, photographs, original design drawings, and personal effects of the artist.

The accompanying book by Maria E. Moreyra Garlock, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University, and David P. Billington, Gordon Y. S. Wu Professor of Engineering, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and director of the Program in Architecture and Engineering at Princeton University, examines the geometric form Candela used to create his most important works, compares his work to that that of other contemporary structural artists, and considers his legacy.

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