Eduardo Catalano

Eduardo Fernando Catalano ( born December 19, 1917 in Buenos Aires, Argentina; † January 28, 2010 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an Argentine architect. He designed the " Raleigh House " in North Carolina, USA, and the " Floralis Genérica " in Buenos Aires.

Life and work

Eduardo Catalano came with a scholarship to the U.S., where he studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. After his second master's degree, he taught from 1945 to 1951 at the Architectural Association in London. Then he went back to the U.S. to accept a Professor of Architecture at the School of Design in Raleigh, North Carolina State University. In 1956, he moved to MIT, where he taught until 1977 in the " Graduate Program ". Then he decided to " New challenges that are as rewarding as teaching, to discover and to participate in them. "

Catalano had " an understanding of the indivisible relationship between space and structure," which earned him praise from Frank Lloyd Wright. He wrote to the "House and Home " magazine, after a report on the " Raleigh House" ( also Catalano House called ) has read: "It is so refreshing to see that the shelter, the most important element of residential architecture as resourceful and is solved as sent in this house Catalano. Catalano sold the house, when he moved to Cambridge (Massachusetts ) to teach at MIT. Years of neglect led finally in 2001 for demolition.

Other homes that were designed by Catalano, the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires and Pretoria ( South Africa), the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, the Guilford County Courthouse in Greensboro (North Carolina ) and the Stratton Student Center were at the MIT in Cambridge (Massachusetts ).

Geometric studies

The Raleigh House, built in 1954 and the most famous building Catalano, is characterized by a hyperbolic and parabolic roof. The curved roof was constructed from straight tongue and groove elements. It was the result of Catalano's geometric studies that were published by the University of North Carolina, entitled " Structures of Warped Surface". The studies included also experiments with new materials such as aluminum and particularly thin concrete structures.

Floralis Genérica

In Recoleta, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Catalano created the sculpture " Floralis Genérica " Parque Thays. The existing aluminum sculpture represents an artificial flower shows, is 20 meters high and was completed in 2002. Your petals close at sunset and glowing at night red.