The concrete shell of the engineers center in the state of Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela, analyzed with parametric tools

The decade of the 60's in Venezuela speaks of a society with a firm will of modernizing even though there was inequity in it. A society that not only entered the peak of world oil production, but also in a stage of accelerated professionalization to direct the public institutions and the growing professional practice of architecture and urbanism, to accompany that modernization. For the project of the construction of the Engineers Center of Zulia State (CIDEZ, 1962-1965) [1], known as the oil state, and in the second largest city of the country, Maracaibo, Candela is summoned once again, not only for his completion of Playa Azul Beach Club, but also because he had already built, in the same city of Maracaibo, and in association with Miguel Casas Armengol (architect), the headquarters of the Medical Association Centre of Zulia State (1960-1963), and where he had also carried out several other projects and works. This document, concerning specifically the Engineers Center, will show elements and constructive details of the structural plan sent by Felix Candela, to later go on to analyze the structure of the concrete shell using advanced NURBS modeling techniques with Rhinoceros [2], and parametric design with Grasshopper. Force simulation and finite element analysis tools will be used along with shape search techniques for design simulations to generate the geometry and compare the results under normal design conditions with the concrete shell.