Torroja's reinforced-concrete shells
Cáscaras de hormigón armado de Torroja
- Date
- 1933-1935 · confidence high
- Place
- Algeciras, Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain
- Credited to
- Eduardo Torroja
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Eduardo Torroja designed thin reinforced-concrete shell roofs, such as the dome of the Algeciras Market (1933), about 48 m in span and 9 cm thick, and the cantilevered canopies of the Zarzuela Hippodrome (1935). Their strength comes from their shape, not their thickness.
He was not the first to use concrete shells: Dischinger and Finsterwalder had used them in Germany since 1922-1925. Torroja is a pioneer in Spain and in the use of shells with free edges and cantilevers.
What it led to
- concrete shell architecture (Candela, Nervi)
- the Technical Institute of Construction and Cement (1934)
- the Spanish school of structural engineering