In this concluding segment, Alexander Eisenschmidt uncovers the layered story behind Félix Candela: From Mexico City to Chicago, tracing the architect’s most iconic shell structures from their genesis in the floating gardens of Xochimilco to their afterlife in American academia. Starting with Juan Guzmán’s photographs of Los Manantiales, Eisenschmidt reveals how Candela’s elegant concrete forms depended on the overlooked labor of low-wage workers, whose efforts were embedded in the very texture of the architecture. As political shifts and labor reforms in Mexico made such experiments unsustainable, Candela found new ground in Chicago’s universities. There, he inspired students to construct their own shell structures, transforming classrooms into laboratories of speculation. The interview sheds light on a pivotal transition: from craft-based innovation shaped by economic precarity to an academic space where trial and failure were possible—and even encouraged.
