Seismic and Lighting Analysis of Félix Candela’s Bacardí Rum Factory

Abstract

Bacardí Rum Factory, is the main subject of this study, along with the Xochimilco restaurant. A good amount of work has been done thus far to determine the structural efficiency of the buildings Candela designed featuring his signature form, the hyperbolic paraboloid. However, there are several aspects of the buildings that have not received as much attention. One of these is their seismic resistance. In this thesis, the performance of the Bacardí Rum Factory and the Xochimilco restaurant during the 1985 Mexico City earthquake is modeled in Abaqus/CAE, with and without stiffening elements. It is found that the stiffening elements have a significant beneficial impact on the seismic resistance of the structures and that the results of the Abaqus models are consistent with those in previous studies. Another overlooked aspect of Candela’s structures is lighting performance, which is important for optimizing a building’s energy consumption. Lighting analyses of both the Bacardí and Xochimilco shells was carried out in Revit, and both structures were found to have excellent lighting properties. This study finds that two of Candela’s buildings perform well in two categories, but there remain many buildings and many categories yet to be explored.