SPbGASU Students Win Prizes in the International Ideas Competition Dedicated to Félix Candela

The Eduardo Torroja Foundation has announced the results of the International Ideas Competition for architecture and engineering students “110th Anniversary of Félix Candela (1910-2020): the Structural Art of Thin Concrete Shells”. The competition was launched earlier this year by the Eduardo Torroja Foundation in collaboration with the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE), the General Directorate of Architecture, Housing and Land of the Ministry of Development of Spain, Madrid Polytechnic University (UPM) represented by the Superior Technical School of Architecture (ETSAM) and the Superior Technical School of Civil Engineers (ETSICCP), as well as the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures and IABSE – Spanish Group. The financial support of the competition was provided by SIKA, S.A.U. (Spain).

This year’s competition was conceived as an international tribute to Félix Candela, one of the greatest Spanish-born architects of the 20th century, whose contribution to modern architecture represents the most extensive legacy of thin concrete shell structures ever built. The organizers’ fundamental objective was to engage talented students from around the world in this tribute to Félix Candela and encourage them to learn and understand not only the architect’s work, but also his model of thought and action – the invisible part of his legacy that has made him an international reference for the new generations of architects and engineers. 

The competition included two sections:

• Advertizing poster announcing the 110th anniversary of the birth of Félix Candela; and
• Drawing of one of Félix Candela’s works, as a result of the geometric analysis of its resistant form or its specific structural behavior.

A total of 208 proposals were submitted by students from 10 different countries. SPbGASU is proud to be the only university that represented Russia in this competition with 61 works submitted by our students. A larger number of works was presented only by Spain, the home country of the competition – the jury considered 75 proposals from Spanish students studying in 15 various universities across the country. Other participating countries were: Mexico – with 24 proposals from 7 universities; Puerto Rico – 19 proposals; Argentina – 15; Italy – 8; Colombia – 2; Venezuela – 2; Peru and Belgium, each with 1 proposal.

The competition organizers have appreciated a great response received from all participants during these challenging times of the world pandemic, when both students and professors have been overwhelmed by a situation that forced them to improvise and adapt to the new circumstances. The jury of the International Ideas Competition, chaired by Jose Antonio Torroja, President of the Eduardo Torroja Foundation, had held two consecutive votes until the 6 prizes were awarded and, based on the quality of the proposals presented, unanimously approved 20 mentions – 10 in each of the competition sections.

The first prize in the nomination for the best drawing was awarded to Sona Tadevosyan, a second-year student of the SPbGASU Faculty of Architecture, for her excellent work titled “Inside Memory”. Moreover, our students’ creativity was highly praised by the jury in the second nomination (advertizing poster) as well. While the first prize for the best poster was awarded to a student from Argentina, the second-place winner is another SPbGASU student of the same faculty Darya Barkeeva, for her poster “Let’s Do It”.

In addition to prize winners, six other students of our university have received special mentions by the competition jury: Anna Nosova, Ilona Liberman, Ksenia Merkulova – in the poster category; Anastasia Atamuratova, Diana Akhmedova and Anastasia Pomozova – for their drawings.

Oleg Fedorov, associate professor of the SPbGASU Faculty of Architecture, who has been coordinating our students’ participation in the competition, has underlined the significance of the undertaking and commented on our students’ distinguished performance: “Every culture keeps the memory of its national heroes, geniuses who have played a major role in forging their cultures. But in addition to preserving the memory and those historic achievements, it is equally important for the modern-day society to disseminate this experience, knowledge and cultural traditions on a global scale. If we talk about architects of the middle and second half of the 20th century and their work, this appears to be even more relevant, as the idea itself, the philosophy of the modernist and functionalist architecture of that time was international – the "international style" was predominant. Félix Candela undoubtedly belongs to those great masters who succeeded in creating a new architectural language. His outstanding personality, his professionalism and vision made it possible to bring to life the idea of ​​the "internationality" of modernist architecture in the literal sense: he worked on his projects in Spain, Mexico, and the USA, and he can be considered both a Spanish and Mexican architect. And it may seem paradoxical in this context to mention the national culture, but, of course, he became one of such heroes for the both countries, leaving behind a remarkable architectural heritage. Certainly, his method, his approach and projects are recognized today as a global asset. I am glad that students of our university have had a chance to get acquainted with the legacy of this prominent architect and it is a special pleasure to see they could demonstrate a high level of skills fairly appraised by the competition jury and helped to present SPbGASU as one of the leading educational institutions in the field of architecture and civil engineering. I think, the experience of holding this competition should not only encourage participants and organizers for further achievements, but also urge us, teachers and architects, to arrange more similar events in memory or support of those outstanding national masters whose buildings and ideas have become an integral part of our culture, and their views and achievements are worthy of popularization and global acclaim.”

Pepa Cassinello, Director of the Eduardo Torroja Foundation and Secretary of the jury, expressed her appreciation to all SPbGASU participants: “On behalf of the jury and collaborating partners of the International Ideas Competition, I would like to thank all the students, professors and staff of Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering for their efforts to join this well-deserved tribute to Félix Candela on the 110th anniversary of his birth. We’re happy to have inspired all of your amazing works and I’m taking this opportunity to convey our congratulations to the prize winners!

Given the current worldwide pandemic situation, we regretfully cannot arrange an awards ceremony bringing us all together in one place and personally sharing the joy of the winners in Madrid as initially planned, but we hope that our good spirit and common passion for architecture will help us go through the hard times and strengthen our existing friendship”.

As Ms Cassinello explained, the diplomas of participation will be shortly sent by email to all involved students and professors. Prize winners will be contacted by the competition sponsor SIKA, S.A.U. regarding the transfer of corresponding monetary awards. 

As a final step, the organizers plan to involve all participating institutions in holding the international online exhibition “110th Anniversary of Félix Candela: the Structural Art of Thin Concrete Shells” to display all student works presented to the contest and publish the names of all participating professors. This important event will sum up the outputs of the competition and will contribute to further disseminating the outstanding architect’s legacy among the new generations.

➠ See Jury Report with the complete list of winners and participating universities

Text: Maria Makarova

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