Parabolic Space

Candela's Creations: Iglesia de la Medalla de la Virgen Milagrosa

Perhaps one of the clearest manifestations of Candela’s parabolic aesthetic is the architect’s 1953 design for the Iglesia de la Medalla de la Virgen Milagrosa, a church located in the suburbs of Mexico City. Although the church community originally requested a traditional Gothic cathedral, Candela reimagined Gothic style so as to prominently feature his parabolic design. The structure of the church’s nave is formed by four parabolic arches that measure twenty meters in height and the secondary chapel is formed by an additional eight smaller arches. According to interviews with Candela, he had been particularly interested in the opportunity to construct the church because he could build ceilings of great heights and an open interior in a one-story structure. The structure of the church’s nave is formed by 4 arches that measure 20 meters and the secondary chapel is formed by an additional 8 arches that measure 8.5 meters each.

Candela's Creations: Casino de la Selva

The Casino de la Selva, located in the city of Cuernavaca, an hour’s drive from Mexico City, was a popular destination for tourists, artists, writers, and politicians. In 1946, the Casino de la Selva was closed for expansions and renovations, which included interior improvements, a bowling alley, two swimming pools, and a new exterior façade. Candela's firm oversaw renovations of the resort, adding a number of buildings to the property: the Salón de los Relojes dining room, thirty bungalows, a grand entryway, and the Mambo discotheque.

During the 1980s, the property was in decline and it was purchased by the transnational corporation Costco in 2001. The Casino’s buildings were torn down to build the shopping center, but its enduring impression on the city is notable by the fact that the bus station is called “la terminal Casino de la Selva.” In addition, Costco funded the construction of replicas that serve as a museum/gallery for the salvaged murals that had once adorned the site (Alarcón Azuela 72).

Candela's Creations: Los Manantiales Restaurant

Throughout the 1950s, Candela’s designs took much of their structural organization from natural forms such as flowers, leaves, and shells (Savorra and Fabbrocino 257). This natural source of inspiration is perhaps most evident in his 1957 construction, the Los Manantiales restaurant in the Xochimilco area of Mexico City. The restaurant, which is located alongside the waterways of the floating gardens, blends in with its natural surroundings. Candela seemed to have taken inspiration for the structure from the word Xochimilco itself, an indigenous term that means field of flowers. When viewed from above, the symmetry of the building’s design creates a lotus flower (Garlock and Billington 142). To create the flower, Candela organized four sets of parabolas around the circumference of a circle. The inch-and-a-half thick concrete hyperbolic paraboloids (hypars) span 139 feet in diameter (“AD Classics”). The floral structure is enclosed with plate-glass windows. Inside there is a restaurant, large dance floor, and seating for nearly 1,000 people. Because Candela hid reinforced V-beams at the intersections of the hypars, the rest of the structure requires little reinforcement. As a result of this design, the edges of the flower are free from support beams, allowing viewers to admire both the dramatic height of the structure and also admire the remarkable thinness of the shell (“AD Classics”).