The Palace of Sports (Palacio de los Deportes) build in 1968 by FĂŠlix Candela ___ The Small Palace of Sports (Palazzetto dello Sport) build in 1960 by Pier Luigi Nervi
Unit D F2013 Morten Foller Larsen Frederik Langhoff Gabriela Alban Hidalgo Julie Bertelsen
Historical data of Palacio de los deportes 1968
1968
Candela Félix Candela was born on January 27, 1910, in Madrid, Spain. In spite of him showing no special talent for drawing, he decided to become an architect. During his time at La Escuela Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (Madrid Superior Technical School of Architecture) Candela developed an interest for thin shell structures, and though he never took a formal course on this subject he studied it by reading articles by French and German engineers. One year after his graduation in 1935, the Spanish civil war broke out. Candela fought for the Republican cause and was subsequently exiled to Mexico in 1939, and here he gained experience as an architect and engineer. During his first years in Mexico, Candela continued to read articles in architectural and engineering magazines and publications in order to finalize his self-education as a structural engineer, and in 1950 he created his company, Cubiertas Ala S.A. By the end of 1951 Candela started gaining international recognition for his shell designs, although many of these were modified copies of already existing shell constructions. It was not until later that he began working with hyperbolic paraboloids (hypars), and the first major work of Candela’s company, the Cosmic Rays Laboratory, was in turn also Candela’s first hypar shell structure. Through the years Candela explored the possibilities of hypar structures through modeling and experimentation, perfecting his ability to produce aesthetically pleasing and economical structures. Candela died on December 7, 1997.1 The Palace of Sports 1968 The construction of the Palace of Sports, or Palacio de los Deportes, started on the 15th of October 1966 in Mexico City, inaugurated by the Mexican president, Gustavo Dias. It was intended to house the basketball games of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico, and of all the Olympic venues the Palace was the most ambitious. Architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, who planned the infrastructure of the Olympics, wanted the structure and its context to not only appeal to people witnessing the games directly, but also to the people watching the sports events at home via TV – and for the first time; in color. This is also apparent from the fact that there are no columns inside the dome, ensuring the spectators and cameras a clear view from all directions. With Félix Candela as an engineer and Antonio Peyri and Enrique Castañeda Tamborrel as architects, the construction was finished in 714 days. Its characteristic textured form is an emblematic expression of the Mexican aesthetic values of the time, and it was a showcase of Mexico’s new industrial vernacular. Throughout its life the Sports Palace has indeed also maintained its iconic presence across geopolitical boundaries, even in spite of it having clear precedents in other Olympic and sports related architecture. Some of the evident inspiration for Candela’s engineering project is Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palazzo of Sports and Palazzetto of Sports, which were both built for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.2, 3
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References 1: The Princeton University Art Museum (2008), Candela, Félix; Engineer, Builder and Structural Artist [Online], <http://mcis2.princeton.edu/candela/candela.html> [accessed: 23 September 2013] 2: Castañeda, Luis M.; Image-Machine: Félix Candela’s Palacio de los Deportes (PDF) Pidgin, vol. 8 (Spring 2010): 246-257., Academia.edu (2013), [Online], <http://www.academia.edu/319988/Image-Machine_Felix_Candelas_Palacio_de_los_Deportes> [accessed: 24 September 2013] 3: (Bottari Ayelén, Giacosa Guido, Quintero Nicolás) Análisis de autores Félix Candela (2012), The Faculty of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Surveying of the National University of Rosario (UNR), [Online], <http://www.fceia. unr.edu.ar/darquitectonico/darquitectonico/data/pdf/2012_1_candela.pdf> [accessed: 24 September 2013] 4: Granados Omar (2013), Recorriendo la ciudad de México a través del tiempo, Candela Félix; Palacio de los Deportes, DF México, <http://www.animalpolitico.com/2013/05/recorriendo-la-ciudad-de-mexico-a-traves-del-tiempo/#axzz2gaBawdCw> [accessed: 23 September 2013] 5: Puente Arquitectura (2012) Wordpress.com, Candela Félix; Palacio de los Deportes, DF México, <http://puentearquitectura.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/arquitectura-olimpiadas-y-los-juegos-olimpicos-mexico-68/> [accessed: 23 September 2013]
HANGING VISIBLE MAIN STRUCTUE
Historical data of Palazzetto dello Sport 1960
1960
Structure and Nervi The Italian architect and engineer, Pier Luigi Nervi (born on June 21, 1891 – died January 9, 1979), is perhaps most known for his use of reinforced concrete in large span structures. In 1932 Nervi formed a contracting firm, Nervi and Bartoli, with his cousin, and here he worked for the rest of his career. In collaboration with a group of architects, Nervi designed the first skyscraper in Italy in 1955, the Pirelli Building, and after World War two he also succeeded in building two sea vessels using his own invention, ferrocemento. Being internationally well-known for his ingenuity, technical skills and often extreme ideas of design, most of the works of Nervi survived the global arrival of new and advanced forms in architecture and the resulting change of taste in buildings. Aesthetics were never Nervi’s main concern, but his works and designs are held in high esteem due to his innovative use of warped planes, folded and bended surfaces, and geometry. Nervi made the Palazzetto dello Sport, or Small Sports Palace, for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome together Annibale Vitellozzi during 1956–57.1
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References 1: Catalano Jr., Eduardo F., Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (2013) [Online], <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/409651/Pier-Luigi-Nervi> [accessed: 26 September 2013] 2: phamvan_tan29’s photostream (2006) Palazzetto dello Sport Annibale Vitellozzi Nervi Rome 5, Flickr <http://www.flickr.com/photos/14036391@N08/2347223046/> [accessed: 26 September 2013] 3: Gäbert, Roy., Pier Luigi Nervi; Palazzetto dello sport 1960, Archinoah.de (1999-2013) <http://www.archinoah.de/architekturfotografie/sportbauten/pier_luigi_nervi/rom/palazzetto_dello_sport-fotodetails-521.html> [accessed: 29 September 2013]
Structural analysis of Palacio de los deportes 1968
Analysis The overall shape of the dome roof of The Palace of Sports, or Palacio de los Deportes, is most likely based on the shape of a catenary. This is the curve that a cable will form if suspended between two points. When hanging like this, there is only tension and no compression at any point along the curve. The roof essentially has the shape of a suspended piece of square cloth, which takes a similar shape. This shape has then been inverted vertically, which results in only compressional and no tensional forces. This is perfect for a shell structure supporting only itself, rendering the use of columns redundant, as all forces are lead to the boundaries of the shell. The Sports Palace’s roof is however not a shell but a construction of two series of perpendicular trusses. As all the trusses form catenaries, the forces are lead to their respective ends thus utilizing the same principle as for a shell. This steel truss frame of has a span of 120m and is supported by dozens of inclined pillars over a concrete buttress. Forming colonnades on all sides, these pillars in part also continue the shape of the roof. The Palace of Sports is based on a circular plan and the dome is 190m in diameter which makes it 45m high at the top.1 The Palace of Sports is further more an application of Candela’s trademark; the hyperbolic paraboloid. Having either straight or curved boundaries, a hyperbolic paraboloid (not to be confused with a hyperboloid), or hypar, is a saddle-shaped surface. It is double ruled which means it can be generate by straight lines from either of two directions. Within the two perpendicular series of catenary trusses is a substructure composed of 100 paraboloid pyramids, which acts as a cladding. Each of the roof’s pyramid segments consists of four identical quadrants, called tympans, from a hypar with straight boundaries. By placing these tympans together – each rotated 90 degrees relative to the previous – they will form the pyramid or “umbrella” shape. Using aluminum pipe space frames and wood laminations, Félix Candela has then applied this resulting shape in a 10-by-10 pattern. The paraboloid pyramids add no actual structural strength to the construction and function merely as an aesthetic detail and as cladding. They are all covered with 0.3mm thick water resistant copper sheets.2,3,4
Compression Tension In this truss the upper chord and the diagonals are in compression, and the lower chord and the radials are in tension. Counter braces are required in order to withstand wind pressures
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References 1: (McGee M., Fritsky Lauren) (2013) Conjecture Corporation (2003-2013) [Online], <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-catenary.htm > [accessed: 24 September 2013] 2: Academia.edu (2013), Castañeda, Luis M.; Image-Machine: Félix Candela’s Palacio de los Deportes (PDF) Pidgin, vol. 8 (Spring 2010): 246-257. [Online], <http://www.academia.edu/319988/Image-Machine_Felix_Candelas_Palacio_de_los_Deportes> [accessed: 24 September 2013] 3: The Faculty of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Surveying of the National University of Rosario (UNR), (Bottari Ayelén, Giacosa Guido, Quintero Nicolás) Análisis de autores Félix Candela (2012) [Online], <http://www.fceia. unr.edu.ar/darquitectonico/darquitectonico/data/pdf/2012_1_candela.pdf> [accessed: 24 September 2013] 4: GoBookee.org Inc., (Holzer Christin E., Garlock Maria E. M., and Prevost Jean H.) (2008) Structural optimiztion of Félix Candela’s Chapel Lomas de Cuernavaca [Online], <http://www.gobookee.net/get_book.php?u=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5wcmluY2V0b24uZWR1L35keW5hZmxvdy9wdWJfY29uZl9wZGZfZmlsZXMvU3RydWN0dXJhbE9wdGltaXphdGlvbkNhbmRlbGFDaGFwZWwucGRmClNUUlVDVFVSQUwgT1BUSU1JWkFUSU9OIE9GIEZFTElYIENBTkRFTEHigJlTIENIQVBFTCBMT01BUyBERSAuLi4%3D)> [accessed: 24 September 2013] 5: Dominis John, Félix Candela The Sports Palace 1968, Workman Finishing Up All Copper Roof of Sports Palace For the Olympics < http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Workman-Finishing-Up-All-Copper-Roof-of-Sports-Palace-Forthe-Olympics-Posters_i3597644_.htm > [accessed: 24 September 2013]
Structural analysis of Palazzetto dello Sport 1960
Analysis and Comparison Both Candela’s Palace of Sports and Nervi’s Small Sports Palace is built for the Olympic Summer Games, and they have the same intended purpose: providing shelter for indoor sports activities. As the context, time and purpose of the buildings is almost the same, it is no wonder that there are several similarities between the two, and from a purely visual and aesthetic viewpoint clear lines can be drawn between them: A domed roof covering vertical walls, the lack of internal columns, the external inclined pillars and the overall circular plan. The Small Palace og Sports also has an inner rotunda, whereas the inner walls and buttresses of the Palace of Sports form a square. Unlike Candela’s dome, Nervi’s also has windows.1 Structurally, the roof of the Palace of Sports in Mexico is a truss-structure with a cladding, and the roof of the Small Palace of Sports is a shell structure made from reinforced concrete. No trusses are employed, and it is instead the structural properties and use of the composite material which holds up the dome. It was made using precast “shape-elements” with an open channel in it, in which the stiffening ribs could be cast. Twelve different series of thin precast “rhomboidal elements”, made from Nervi’s ferrocemento, were placed on top of these ribs, and the cast was then executed after reinforcement had been placed in the channels. Reinforcement was also placed over the rhomboidal elements, and finally a thin layer of concrete was cast over this forming the finished dome. The rhomboidal ribbing makes the structure relatively light, and together with the thin “outer” shell it leads the forces all the way to the edge of the roof, where inclined Y-shaped pillars lead them to the ground. In this fashion the building is very similar to Candela’s in Mexico. Without the application of external forces, there would be no tensional forces in the concrete roof. It would support itself utilizing only the compressional properties of the concrete. But since winds and natural forces in general are also factors, tension will be introduced to the structure – hence the need for reinforcement. The trusses do to some extend function a lot like the concrete shell in that they would experience no tension without external forces. With the weight of the paraboloid cladding and natural forces, tensions will nonetheless appear, which is why the trusses are formed the way they are.2
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References 1: Catalano Jr., Eduardo F., Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (2013) [Online], <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/409651/Pier-Luigi-Nervi> [accessed: 26 September 2013] 2: (Iori Tullia, Poretti Sergio), Pier Luigi Nervi’s Works for the 1960 Rome Olympics (2005) Actas del Cuarto Congreso Nacional de Historia de la Construcción [Online], <http://www.sedhc.es/biblioteca/actas/CNHC4_058.pdf> [accessed: 29 September 2013] 3: kplo (2011-2013) Pierre Luigi Nervi 1960, Deviantart; Photography / Architecture / Interior < http://kplo.deviantart.com/art/Palazzetto-dello-sport-196406898 > [accessed: 26 September 2013] 4: Redazione (2012) Pierre Luigi Nervi 1960, Curiositá D’epoca <http://www.roma2oggi.it/?m=20121219> [accessed: 26 September 2013]
Covering Relating to the Human Body - Palacio de los deportes 1968
Light The expression of the covering in Felix Candelaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Palace of Sport is defined by the relationship between cladding and frame. The clarity of the repetition in the trusses articulates the characteristic form of the hyper paraboloids by granting them a frame for continuity and wholeness of form. The truss grid defines a formal rhythm to the space it encloses. In this work light interacts with both the interior and exterior of the covering to modulate a characteristic form. The reflective pyramid like forms composed form the hyper paraboloids allow for light to play an staccato rhythm with the covering. The reflective characteristics of the cooper allow for a diurnal change in the exterior character of the form. The way the light punctures the concrete base is able to give a certain unexpected lightness to the apparent mass of the shell. In the interior, light modulates the depth of the shell structure and concedes an opportunity for the complexity of the form to become apparent. This depth allows for a juxtaposition between the expected heavy mass of the outside and a new revealed articulation of a certain lightness on the inside. The dark character of the light on the interior results in a space that is thought provoking, secluded from the outside in the interior of the main chamber. In addition due to its geographical location the covering acts more as a protective membrane, it protects the human body from the harsh subtropical sun. The structure modulates the space in a manner in which all the attention of the spectator is turned towards the spectacle at the center of the chamber. The audience is encouraged to dwell on the interior and the exterior environment is left behind. Scale In Candelaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Palace of Sport the conversation between the cladding and the frame relates to the human body in a variety of scales. When relating the human body to the truss frames a part of the structural wholeness of the structure is perceived. The curved truss frames imply that there is a whole and that is it much larger than the space in close proximity to the body.When underneath the hyperbolic pyramids the scale of structure dramatically change, these can be understood as wholes in of themselves. The space enclosed by these pyramids is in close proximity and can be fully experienced and understood. Inside Outside Relationship The inside/outside relationship in Felix Candelaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s double shelled structure appears to have a fortress like quality. Its angled texture on the outside does not appeal to touch and seems to maintain the audience at a distance. One cannot help but to relate its appearance to the shell of an armadillo and therefore expresses a contextual utility of protection. However uninviting the shell might appear from the exterior it still allows one to be aware of some of the exterior qualities, at least on the auditory level. The cooper on the dome membrane allows for the rain and the hail to resound on the shell and in the inhabitable membrane.
Perception of scale
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Covering Relating to the Human Body - Palazzetto dello Sport 1960
Light The covering in Pier Luigi’s Small Palace of Sport light penetrates the mass and changes the expected density of the material. The usual weight of the concrete is negated by raising the dome over the light pillars and allowing light to flood the interior space. Furthermore, the delicate articulation of the structure on the ceiling of the dome gives light the opportunity to play with the materiality on the roof and articulate the relationship between structure and membrane.Inside the rationality and rhythm of the structure becomes part of the spectacle. In this geographical region where the sun is softer than in mexico light can be softer and flood the interior with a more even character. Scale The delicate quality of the dome in Pier Luigi’s Palace relates to the human body in a much more intimate manner. As one enters the dome the apartment structural clarity allows one to understand and fully perceive the space. The lines of the dome can be followed and understood as an integral system, a clear dome. The whole is experienced in fullness all through the inhabitable space of the dome. Inside Outside Relationship On the other hand the relationship between the inside and the outside in the Palace is of a much more fluid character. In raising the concrete dome form the ground and allowing light to flood the interior chamber the character of the space becomes a function of the exterior phenomenas. It is the exterior light which floods the interior and makes it come to live.
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References 1: Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, António José Luís dos Reis (2009) Biomimetismo [Online], <https://dspace.ist.utl.pt/bitstream/2295/354504/1/Versao_final.pdf> [accessed: 01 September 2013] https://dspace.ist.utl.pt/bitstream/2295/354504/1/Versao_final.pdf
Exploration of frame and cladding - Palacio de los deportes 1968
HANGING VISIBLE MAIN STRUCTUE
Covering Relating to the Human Body - Palazzetto dello Sport 1960
Qualities Explored How does the relationship between cladding and membrane affect the human experience? What is the difference between rhythm and repetition? How does structural hierarchy affect the perception of scale?
Qualities uncovered? The integrity and elegance of the structure in Candela’s building the cladding acts as decoration and even unnecessary complexity. In Pier Luigi’s structure the the cladding and membrane coexist together. In Nervi’s building the membrane is found on the exterior of the structure whereas in Candela’s building the structure is woven between the frames. Here the cladding disrupts the clarity of the structure. In the process of constructing the system and structure we unveiled the complexity and the lack of clarity in Candela’s Sports Palace. The complexity of the hyper paraboloids appears unnecessary and inhibiting the apparent integrity.The complex analysis necesary to understand the structure can probably be projected on the unnecessary complication of the interior space. On the other hand in Pier Luis structure the interiror articulation of the structure provokes a more profound understanding of shape. Candela’s building is based on repetition where as Nervi’s structure is based on rhythm. The rhythm of the patterns allows for an intricacy of spatial experience while maintaining a beautiful logic coherence.