Purposes+between+Architects+and+U.P.

About the podcast:

I like stone constructions because it gives you a monumental feeling. I dont know how to explain it, but when i think about how was built and all the work and effort that someone has to put to finally construct something like that, it makes me see it with other eyes. Stone is a material used in architecture that comes from nature, so because it textures and colors makes the public conect with the magnificence of the estructure and at the same time gives a nature feeling.

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At the beginning of humanity, architecture had a single purpose; this was to work as a shelter, to protect the human from hard environments, supernatural forces, dangerous animals and other humans. But architecture has had some changes through time, it has evolved with the human civilization and has overcome it previous definition. It becomes more than a shelter, now it has a cultural, economic and social meaning; also the functionality, aesthetics, design and comfort are some aspects that have to be mixed along the way.

 The architect looks to satisfy the many needs of the contemporary man. To produce a good project he has to manage all the aspects said before and use his creativity and knowledge, acquire along his career, to create balance and harmony.

 Almost 25 years before today, came up a branch of the architecture, this was the urban design. This new profession also takes all the work of the architects, but they focus on a larger range. At the same way as the architects the urban planners look to satisfy all the needs that a client can have, but the difficult part is that they have to work with a whole lot of people. Regularly the urban planner clients have the size between a village and a city. They have to use investigations of the social mass, the community consultation and the geography, in order to produce a project that brings a solution for the public.



 I think the urban planners are very alike to the architects. The only different thing between them is that urban planners have a much heavier work. They have to deal with a lot quantity of people and make his biggest effort to satisfy them all. The work of the architect is based on the exposure of extreme details of the needs of a single client; But this, is a luxury not to be spent by city planners. The architect and the urban planner have to work together to produce a very nice place. If you are an architect and create a well designed home for a family, it has to be connected to a village, a city or at least a street; so it is the work of the urban planner to take all the spaces outside the architect’s projects and make them enjoyable for the public.

 The final purpose of this essay is to answer the questions of: How does Caracas stand in terms of both, architecture and urban planning? I certainly think that this question is very difficult to answer, but I’m going to make an effort.

 Caracas is a city that differs from other contemporary capital cities of the world. Many capital cities were built at the first time near the Stone Age and with the pass of time they evolved. With the help of the best architects and man of other profession, the cities were planned and designed as the most important city of each country. Caracas is city where the Spaniards took place when they discovered the new world, and they never thought of planning anything.

 At the earlier 60s, we could see a updated city. After seeing the newest architecture works, like the Ciudad Universitaria, El silencio and more, many European architects named Caracas as the capital of architecture. In those days some awesome architects were giving ideas and creating projects. But with the economic, political and social descent, this way to advance in the built of a city, push the pause button. Nowadays it’s very difficult to change a city from the beginning. The community of the capital city of Venezuela has grown in a drastic way and our city had become small. It isn’t only the growth of the population, it’s also the fall over of the Caracas citizen’s values; they don’t respect the rules and some simply don’t care.

 A few think that to build Caracas again, with at least some basics urban design aspects, they have to destroy it all and start over. I’m not so extreme, but I think that in order to coexist in a more liable place, the first and the biggest change we have to make, are not the ones in structures or on the streets, are the ones inside people’s minds.

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