1. Los Manantiales
Felix Candela
Dabin Choi & Megan Cyr

2. Los Manantiales Made in 1958
Los Manantiales is situated in Xochimilco , Mexico.
Candela thought it was important to preserve the nature, therefore he based the design of the building of a lotus flower that is calmly resting on the waters.

3. Dimensions of the Building
Diameter: 42m Thickness of the thinnest part of the concrete shell: 4cm

4. Important Concepts of the Building
Symmetry for stability (mathematically proven)
Groined Vaults (v-beam) increased the stiffness of the structure (decreases bending and deflection)
8 groined vaults
Umbrella footings which decreased the amount of material used, and resisted the weight of the curvature
Compression based building
Hyperbolic parabola
Made of reinforced concrete

5. The Structure
Our first idea was to mold the Los Manantiales building out of clay, and then cover it with paper mache in order to achieve the correct shape of the structure.

6. We chose this method for two reasons
We chose this method for two reasons. First of all, Los Manantiales is known for the hyperbolic shape of each arch, and in order to achieve that shape, we needed to mold the arches with the double curve in mind. We thought that clay would be a smart way to go about forming these shapes. Secondly, we chose to use paper mache because we wanted to highlight the thinness of the concrete walls.

7. The Process
At first, the clay was difficult to work with and the mush of clay that we had was nowhere close to looking like the structure we intended to recreate…

8. … but not too long after, this is what we ended up with!
This issue with using the clay as our final project was that it did not accurately display the thinness of the concrete, which we thought was a very important aspect of the building to show.

9. We then proceeded to cover the clay with paper mache, but in order to be sure the paper mache would unstick from the clay, we covered the clay model with plastic wrap and oil.

10. Our intent after we removed the paper mache was to sand it until it became smooth and seamless, leaving us with a very clean looking structure, but that became impossible because the paper mache structure dried with too many imperfections to fix with sanding.
The model also lost its double curve when it was removed from the clay.

11. The Second Idea
We did some more research, and came up with the idea of creating a minimal structure of the building with chip board and threading string along the edges to create the hyperbolic curves with a different method. This method also fell through, and this is where it left us.
Add photo of string model
Add photos of hyperbolc curve made from straight lines
Add facts about curves with straight lines

12. The Third Idea
We wanted to create as smooth a surface as possible, so we decided to try applying plaster to the surface of the model.
We first covered the clay model with tin foil before we applied paper mache in order to easily remove the paper mache from the base. It was also easier to smooth down the wrinkles in the tinfoil than the plastic wrap that we used in the first attempt.
This did not turn out as planned because the plaster cracked and crumbled while drying.

13. The Final Idea
After many attempts, we finally decided to go back to the first method of paper mache with greater precision and accuracy.
Although we couldn’t achieve the smooth surfaces, we were able to portray the hyperbolic parabola and the thinness of the shell.

14. Reference
Felix Candela: the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery (no date) Available at: (Accessed: 10 November 2016).
History - Félix Candela - Princeton university Art Museum (no date) Available at: (Accessed: 10 November 2016).
Miller, M. (2014) AD classics: Los Manantiales / Felix Candela. Available at: (Accessed: 10 November 2016).
South, N. (2256a) Felix Candela and restaurant Los Manatiales. Available at: (Accessed: 10 November 2016).

15. FIN