Eladio Dieste
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Eladio Dieste (December 1, 1917 – July 29, 2000) was a
Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
an
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
who made his reputation by building a range of structures from grain silos, factory sheds, markets and churches, most of them in Uruguay and all of exceptional elegance.


Biography

Dieste was born in
Artigas department Artigas Department (, ) is the northernmost Departments of Uruguay, department of Uruguay, located in its northwestern region. Its capital is the city of Artigas, Uruguay, Artigas, which borders on the Brazilian city of Quaraí. Artigas Department ...
. His uncle was the Spanish poet Rafael Dieste. A particular innovation was his Gaussian vault, a thin-shell structure for roofs in single-thickness brick, that derives its stiffness and strength from a double curvature catenary arch form that resists
buckling In structural engineering, buckling is the sudden change in shape (Deformation (engineering), deformation) of a structural component under Structural load, load, such as the bowing of a column under Compression (physics), compression or the wrin ...
failure. There were several architects and engineers in South and Latin America who were working in the
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
language, such as Guillermo Gonzalez Zuleta in
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
, Carlos Raúl Villanueva in
Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
and Félix Candela in
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, who brought architecture and structural engineering into close proximity, especially when undertaking humble commissions. His buildings were mostly roofed with thin shell vaults constructed of brick and ceramic tiles. These forms were cheaper than reinforced concrete, and didn't require ribs and beams. In developing this approach, even in comparison with modernists the world over, he was an innovator. Dieste is quoted about his use of materials and structure: :''There are deep moral/practical reasons for our search which give form to our work: with the form we create we can adjust to the laws of matter with all reverence, forming a dialogue with reality and its mysteries in essential communion... For architecture to be truly constructed, the materials must be used with profound respect for their essence and possibilities; only thus can 'cosmic economy' be achieved... in agreement with the profound order of the world; only then can have that authority that so astounds us in the great works of the past''. With regard to structure Dieste stated: :''The resistant virtues of the structure that we make depend on their form; it is through their form that they are stable and not because of an awkward accumulation of materials. There is nothing more noble and elegant from an intellectual viewpoint than this; resistance through form''.Quoted from ''Eladio Dieste – The Engineer's Contribution to Contemporary Architecture'', page 21. Many of the techniques that he developed to achieve these forms, such as pre-stressing of brickwork and moveable formworks, were in advance of contemporary techniques in the developed world. He died, aged 82, in
Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
.


Selected works

* St. Peter Church in Durazno * Christ the Worker Church in Estación Atlántida * Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Malvín * St. John of Avila Church in
Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the right (north) bank of the Henares River, Henares. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municip ...
* Teatro de Verano Ramón Collazo in
Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
* Montevideo Shopping (structure of the first stage, 1985; architect: Guillermo Gómez Platero) * Church of St. Charles Borromeo (structural calculation, 1956; architect: Juan Pablo Terra)


References


Sources

* , * * * Fausto Giovannardi
"Eladio Dieste: un'ingegneria magica"Fausto Giovannardi
Borgo San Lorenzo, 2007.


External links



*
Structurae: Eladio Dieste
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dieste, Eladio 1917 births 2000 deaths Uruguayan civil engineers University of the Republic (Uruguay) alumni Modernist architects Ecclesiastical architects People from Artigas Department Uruguayan people of German descent 20th-century Uruguayan architects 20th-century Uruguayan engineers