Final+Project

Venezuela is a magnificent country; it has nature, cities, people, and more people. This country is too not recognized at world by its architecture, but it has very interesting things to talk about. Let’s start by the capital city. Caracas is the most populated city in the country and the one that has the most urban development. It has skyscrapers, little houses and a lot of residential and business buildings. There are many examples to analyze. Like a first example we can take The National Assembly of Venezuela. This building is one of the administrative and executive centers of Venezuela. It was designed as a white and yellow building with a gold vault in a squared terrain. The magnificent of this building impacts in the context, acting as a point in the city. Another building acting as the same is Crystal Park building, designed by Jimmy Alcock located in “Francisco de Miranda” Avenue. The colors used in this building are blue and silver by its construction materials. This cubic building has a horizontal circulation and a vertical circulation mixed in a very good level giving spaces to work, walk and stay. Caracas is a mixed city, it has not only building, it has also low level houses, made with elements that are not highly recommended by their weakness and durability. In Venezuela are called “Ranchos” and the zones that they are located mostly are called “Barrios” These neighborhoods were being appearing since a long time ago. The bad economy in the country, obligated people builds them for surviving. These “Barrios” form a mixture of rhythm and dynamic topography in contrast with the topography made by buildings and skyscrapers at the city. Walking by streets people notes that there are different spatial sensations made by the context, like a principal factor. In this picture we can see a street that has stores in one side and a church in another one. The game of circulation and rhythm made by the lights posts and the floor texture plays in contrast with the absence of formal rhythm of the stores side of the street. Color in Venezuela has not being thought at all; in some places colors plays to make an impact into the people, in some places the colors are just… what people likes! In these two pictures we can see this contrast, in a first place, a thought definition of the color in a urban scale for an specific effect: The Central University of Venezuela. In the other side, we have a not though definition of color, it finished being a color wheel, a carnival! “Barrios” of Caracas. Texture in Venezuela are treated mostly at streets and facades of cities, are thought principally to guide a circulation or giving a relevance or a message to the building, taking by examples the floor of streets, the floor of The “Plaza Cubierta” At the Central University of Venezuela and the facades of the National Library of Venezuela made of brick. The circulation in Venezuela and in it architecture is mostly horizontal, but in residential and business building the vertical circulation takes more importance and not just for going up! The vertical circulation is a complete theme in architecture, acting as a compositional element in the design process, having the importance of elements like apartments, offices or another uses. Light in Venezuela is high… very high. The use of compositional elements in Venezuelan country goes from use of windows, brise-soleil, roofs, vegetable covers, etc. All these elements help to architecture work with light as a theme more than a trouble. In the Central University of Venezuela the architect Carlos Raul Villanueva made spectacular zenithal entrances of light in different places, almost always unexpected, because he provides shadow and protection to people, and light is the liberation, the focus, the theme. In another structures such as Sambil market center, light is only worked in different focus with windows, but is not profited at all. All the country has advantages and disadvantages related with space and scale. Let’s put one example, in a logical situation if a state has more land, it has more people, but in this country is exactly at inverse. In Caracas the density of people is three times than in Apure. This aspect make different things to the country, Caracas has being developed with more rush than Apure and another states in the country, and by this fact the space wealth is affected. In places like “Plaza de los Museos” at Caracas, the spatial sensation is excellent, it has a very good management of scale and volumetric definition of boundaries and space. Is a space thought in the people and made for the pedestrian. Scale in this place is defined by radius of central place and the low boundaries made for the rounding buildings. It’s a comfortable place to stay and walk. Venezuela is magnificent. A lot of people can think different things but is undeniable that there are places and buildings in the city with a spatial wealth comparable with the exterior of the country. Space is what architecture is all about. The mixture of a lot of elements like light, color, and scale makes different spaces with different attributes related with the context and with the environment, in our case, the weather and the geographical situation gives us elements and conditions to work with, Let’s take advantage of them. For all this I should say that Venezuela is Unique.  media type="youtube" key="LSf3L9JoASY" height="505" width="853" This project is an opportunity for Venezuela, is important to give the relevance of the aspects that makes Venezuela Unique. Is time for learning about our own country and not being all the time admiring the world architecture and forgetting about our. Here we have very good thing, and bad thing like everything, but the important is to know them, and just for know them really, we are giving a chance to our Country.