Final+Project

media type="youtube" key="VUd-VVP0dAw?version=3" height="390" width="640" align="center" **What makes Venezuela unique from an architectural or urban planning perspective? **   **A Trip To San Bernardino **



My name is Eva Ramos, and my work is about the architecture of Caracas. I decided to use this city to represent how the concept of architecture in Venezuela is. I know that Caracas doesn’t represent all the country’s architecture but as the capital, I believe that Caracas is the center or nucleon of our culture. For this purpose I’ve chosen to travel from my home in La Tahona to San Bernardino, where my friend Kharl lives. The trip begins In La Tahona, where I live, but in my travel I stopped first at Universidad Central de Venezuela because there is where my friend studies so I met there with him for picking him up to going to San Bernardino, and also to take the opportunity of having Kharl as a tour guide of his own university, which is cataloged as humanity patrimonial of Venezuela, so it is transcendental to understand why Venezuelan architecture is so unique. In the travel I found out:
 * The Mosaic “Jardín Lumínico” in “Prados del Este” road, in Baruta’s side.
 * The wall of Zapata next to the UCV.
 * The UCV (Universidad Central de Venezuela) university.
 * Plaza del Rectorado in the UCV.
 * The covered plaza of the UCV.
 * The glass wall in the main library of UCV.
 * The Aula Magna in the UCV.
 * The Sambil (A mall) in the Candelaria, near San Bernardino.
 * The Streets of San Bernardino.

Reloj en la Plaza del Rectorado en la U.C.V.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Body **<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Color

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Jardín Lumínico

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Color, for an artist, is very important, as it means a way to add a feeling to the creation. For architecture, color has more uses, as it can help to hide, expose or even enhance certain sensations, as in excitement or calm. It can also mean to the creation a sensation of temperature, height, and even deepness. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Color is very important for not only decorative purposes, but to harmonize the psychological environment of an individual. By applying the correct technique, color can overcome a chromatic disambiguation and also improve the sensibility of certain space or area. With these in mind, the architect can create a zone that, with determinate colors can give a sensation of relaxation, elegancy and many others. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For example, I am using the wall that’s located at Baruta, Caracas. Using the variety of colors presented by the artist Patricia Van Dalen, they made the “Jardín Lumínico” in the wall. The colors used, 13 in total, give a sensation of calm, as the main color is blue. We also noticed that they used these colors due to they do not create a distraction to the driver. So they work both decoration and psychological factors together, giving color to the zone, while also expressing calm to the near drivers. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Compared to the "Jardín Lumínico" of Baruta, the wall of Zapata is elaborated with warmer colors. This gives this wall a relation to the dynamic of the environment it's placed. Along with this, on it there are represented many of the greatest personalities of our history. It also works as a frontier for the university, "Universidad Central de Venezuela", meaning the university overcomes shadows

Mural de Zapata


 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Light



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">Plaza Cubierta UCV <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A fundamental, and hard to not notice, factor during our way through the roofed plaza and the rectorado office has been the use of light. Like we saw during the semester this factor becomes very important at the moment of giving the sensation of space, calm and enhances the interesting spots. At the roofed plaza it's important to point out how they used the light to make the decoration to stand out. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lightness then becomes an important factor during the way, guiding through the plaza and indicating to the viewers where they should center their attention to contemplate the sculptures and paints, since the rest of the space is covered in shadows that mean that those spaces are just for transition, as they don't have anything of interest for the public. As the users get closer to the main library they are received by an illuminated space, without a roof, that can be used for study or relaxation purposes. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">At the inside of the library the user can see a big window that limits the entrance of light and transforms it into a wide variety of color rays that get reflected in the floor, giving the room an air of luxury, similar to the ones present in church. This type of illumination gives the sentiment of respect inside the building and gives the sensation of calm and silence.

Vitral de la Biblioteca Central

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">During the travel I had many texture feelings, but the most interesting one occurred in the “plaza cubierta de la central”, because it consisted on a visual texture. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I perceived the visual texture through the artworks that were across the “plaza cubierta”, which consisted on dynamic abstract figures. The form of these artworks is transmitted or corresponds perfectly with the dynamism of the plaza, because in this place are done many activities like studying, walking, making sports or having club reunions. So this artworks reinforce that idea of energy in the space.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Texture

El Pastor de Nubes

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The "Nubes Acústicas" of the Aula Magna, designed by Alexander Calder work as an esthetic element for the auditory, as well as panels that reflect the sound. They're made of wood and their mission is to distribute the sound uniformly around all the room and they prevent background sounds. The different directions of the panels let the sound be distributed in various ways from the stage to the public. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">On the other hand in the streets of San Bernardino exist an acoustic problem due to the heightens and proximity of the buildings, because of this in the moment we arrived to my friend's apartment in the penthouse we could hear people talking on the streets, the cars horns and all the noise of the usual life style people have there, this happens because the sound reflects on the buildings and gets to the higher levels without being able to dissipate first.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Acoustics

Aula Magna UCV


 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rhythm

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As an example of rhythm we have the road that we follow at the entrance of the Universidad Central de Venezuela to reach “Plaza del Rectorado”. This place is good for representing the rhythm because it has an example of dynamic and monotonous rhythm at the same time and that’s telling us that the designer wants to give the visitors the chance to contempt and enjoy both sides of the feelings of these rhythms. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When we reach the entrance, at the right hand we could see a large pedestrian corridor with a roof that looks like a tunnel. Visually that road produces a monotonous rhythm, and also that road is conditioned to have the property of produce “eco” so it can be an extra factor to condition the monotonous rhythm of the travel. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">About the dynamic rhythm, we see the path of the left, and there we can find a lot of trees and some buildings that have the same patrons of construction, those elements marks a specific rhythm that are interrupted when we reach the clock that allows us to enter in the destiny point, the Plaza del Rectorado, so this rhythm consists of a variety of elements that are synthesized in the interleaving of full and empty.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Vertical & horizontal circulation

Plaza Cubierta <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Of all sites I visited, I think the “plaza cubierta” covered both concepts of circulation (vertical and horizontal). <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When we access to the plaza we found a fluid path that is given through the light like we did mentioned before, and arriving to the Aula Magna zone we find out two ramps in both sides that forms part of an horizontal circulation maintaining the fluidity previously perceived, despite being ascending to an upper floor. As to the vertical circulation we find many stairs that forms part of the modules of the vertical circulation, located in key points of “Plaza Cubierta” where the areas of circulation cross, so it streamlines the act of ascending. While the ramp represents route and spatial relationships, the stairs represent verticality and ascending.

Ramp of Plaza Cubierta


 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Space & Scale (Sambil de la Candelaria)

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Space & scale” is referred to the way in which the human perceives the scale of the elements that surrounds him with respect to its own scale, and how that perception changes the way that he presence the space. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In “Plaza del Rectorado” we can see that it is an empty space formed by three buildings surrounding the area. When standing in the center of the plaza we feel like we are a very small person, because of the horizontality of the buildings at the extremes that gives deep to the plaza, and the height of the front building that gives altitude to the plaza’s borders, making us feel like accessing to an imposing space. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Something like this happened when we were in our way to “San Bernardino”, when we passed by the “Sambil de la Candelaria”, that just as all the mall edifications, are imposing constructions in the environment in which they are, to catch the attention of all the people and being a landmark of the their area. Sambil de la Candelaria

<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">At the end of the travel, I saw how the elements that we study along the semester work together to give Venezuela a characteristic mode of understanding the architecture. Maybe this work can’t resume all the characteristics of this country because I only used the capital, but with this project we could understand how Venezuela is a unique country that used primordially the concepts of color and illumination and light. This is possible because the country is located in the tropic, and with the weather of the region, the use of colors and lights are indispensables for remark and catch the attention. In the Universidad Central de Venezuela the use of this concepts are almost touchable and that’s why it is a patrimonial of the humanity but along the city we see that not all the buildings and artworks used properly these meanings. <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">In my personal opinion I believe that this project is fundamental to understand how the culture of this country influenced in its way of express the architecture, and how there are a lot of needs than are been requested in determinate areas of the same city. The space, the rhythm, and the circulations result fundamental to understand the needs and the possibility that an area can offer to a construction. Without those concepts, I’m sure that a building would not make sense with itself or with its context.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Conclusion **<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic',sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">:

Plaza del Rectorado media type="youtube" key="VUd-VVP0dAw?version=3" height="390" width="640" []