Final+Project

 **What makes Venezuela unique from an architectural perspective? **

Hi! my name is Andrea Castellanos, I'm an architecture student at Simon Bolivar university, in this video I will talk about the seven elements that makes the Venezuelan architecture unique, from an architectural perspective. I hope that you enjoy it.

**Color: ** **"Torre Banco Provincial": ** is a tower located in Caracas composed mainly for three colors: white, black and gray. In this building stand out several white cubes of the facade, make a good contrast with the black color of the glass windows in the background, they reflect the white cubes like a mirror, giving the impression that in the interior of the building also they are (illusion). If we see the building from outside, we see that looks like a big computer keyboard. The black windows give privacy and function like a sunlight protector. The gray color is for the column in the building corners.

**Light: **  Inside of the **“Aula Magna” ** we can find in the ceiling the big sculpture called: "nubes de Calder" they are suspending in the roof by resisting cables, and they are made of plywood, behind them are many lights that not only are part of the piece of art, but also works like a general light, they are placed in strategic locations to provide all the necessary light to the hall, for example in presentations, concerts, graduations, and so on. Outside of the “Aula Magna”, in the entrance, we can find some peculiar walls, with holes in them, that serve for the entrance and exit the light and air, with the pass of years, they are dirty and damaged, but today are still useful for functions that were made.

**Acoustic: ** **“Sala Rios Reyna” ** located inside on the “Teresa Carreño” building, is a special room, designed to accommodate all types of events, like graduations, operas, concerts... because it has a good acoustic. The coating of the roof, seats and even the door is special, because in the case of the doors, they have a insulation material that separated the noise of outside and inside, and in the case of the seats and roof serve to disseminate balanced sound no matter if the room is empty or full. Is also provided with a soundboard.

**Texture: ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">"Club Tachira **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">": is located in Caracas city. Was designed by Fruto Vivas. Is one of the most beautiful buildings in our country, in the facade we can view six different textures: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">1) Wooden texture: we can find them in the roof, stairs and railings.  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">2) Glass texture: in the large windows. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">3) Metal texture: in the structure that supports the weight of large windows .  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">4) Concrete texture: in the walls that not are coated by wood. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">5) Polished stone texture: in the ground floor.  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">6) Ceramic texture: in the huge cylinder, that we can see in the white-black picture. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">All these textures we can identify such rough texture, but also we can consider the wooden texture like the softer texture of all them.

**<span style="color: #00b0f0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Rhythm: ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">One of the places where they concentrate all <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">types of rhythms is **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"Universidad Central de Venezuela". ** I will explain each of them. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">-Repetition of shapes: in some walls in the passage we can see repetition of squares and rectangles, which illuminates the corridors. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">-Repetition of dimensions: the majority of the corridors in the university have the same dimension, the columns are equally spaced one from the other. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">-Repetition of differences: in the engineer faculty we can see walls formed by different colors and irregular rectangles, this shapes are disposed in different places, so the wall design is asymmetric and unique. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">-Rhythm indefinite and open: the roofs of the corridors, with its undulated form give the impression that the corridor never ends. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">-Rhythm can be definite and closed: each building is different from the other, from far away we can see where begin and end each faculty. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">-The rhythm of lines: in the campus we can see to bird view how the undulated lines going for all the university. Other example is the stained glass in the library, that have undulated lines that form interesting shapes.

**<span style="color: #0f8be3; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Circulation: ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Sambil margarita **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;"> Mall is located in Pampatar, in Nueva Esparta state. Is a big center for shopping. If we view the plant of the building since bird view we can see that center form is a flower, but not any flower, but a daisy, representing the island. The building is very tall for have one floor, and this makes the space be more fresh and more natural light come in through the special material that is on the roof. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">We can see to naked eye that the horizontal circulation is dominant, which is that this mall has several corridors that intersect in the food fair area. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">This building have eight principal entrances. But despite dominating the Horizontal circulation, we note that this construction have too vertical circulation, like ramps that join the food fair with the hallways, even for come in to the mall there are ramps and stairs. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">With the fact that the mall has more horizontal circulation is more comfortable for tourists and whether they can walk, ride to the little train or be in a wheelchair.

**<span style="color: #00b0f0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Space and Scale: ** **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">"La Catedral de Caracas" **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;"> is located next to "Plaza Bolívar", this church have a neoclassical style, for this reason we can see in the pictures that the doors and windows are very big in comparison with the human scale, this scale is the model more easy to compare the distance when we don't have a meter. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">In a certain way, we can see that the building have a good proportion between the landscape that surrounding it, because the other buildings share the same relationship in size, height and even decoration. A good proportion between the geometric shapes that conform the whole, two big rectangular prisms, and the proportion between the elements like the bell tower and the facade. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Maybe, in comparison of the landscape we can note that the church is small, but when we enter on the building we can observe the huge spaceinside it, of course, the experience of each person is different and in consequence, we can feel the space different too.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">The integration of these concepts makes Venezuela unique because they are combined not only each other but also are combined with the tropical climate, and lifestyle of Venezuelans. While it is true that all the buildings shown were beautiful, we must also take into consideration that exist others buildings that not are so beautiful, the houses of the dispossessed, but as we see in the picture, with a little color and effort, can also get to look good. This project expanded my vocabulary and also thanks to it, I know a little more about those buildings, that we passes normally and not stop to contemplate.

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