Estrella Rendón

Mexican engineer who designed the first earthquake-resistant building codes and pioneered sustainable construction practices

Estrella Rendón (1922-2001) redefined architectural safety in earthquake-prone regions through her development of the Rendón Structural System in 1958. As Mexico City's first female civil engineer, she broke gender barriers while creating solutions to the city's frequent seismic activity. Her 1965 book Building for the Earth's Movements became the standard reference for earthquake-resistant design worldwide.

Rendón's innovations included the Flexible Foundation System (1953) that allowed buildings to absorb seismic waves, and the Green Concrete Composite (1968) that reduced construction carbon footprints by 30%. She led the retrofitting of 400+ historic buildings during Mexico City's 1970 urban renewal project, saving architectural treasures like the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Her work influenced the 1985 Mexico City earthquake response and inspired modern resilience engineering practices. Rendón also co-founded the Instituto Rendón de Construcción Sostenible (1972), which trained over 3,000 engineers across Latin America. Her 1990s collaboration with Japanese researchers led to the first global seismic design standards.

View her engineering diagrams at Mexico History Museum Archives and read her 1975 interview The Architect of Survival from Engineering Heritage Quarterly.