Final+Project

===**My name is Maria Carlota Fermin, and for my English Course I decided to make a final project about Venezuela and what makes Venezuela unique form an architectural point of view. In this project I will describe different aspects from the architecture of my country using the concepts we study during the term, which are: color, light, texture, acoustics, rhythm, circulation, space and scale**===

**Color**
===The best example for the use of color in Venezuela is the Ciudad Universitaria, which was designed by Carlos Raul Villanueva; the whole campus is a rich composition of colors and contrasts. One of the most important buildings is the Central Library; this building stands up because of the red and black color on its façade. By using these colors, Villanueva creates a contrast with the context and also emphasizes the top of the building where there is no color at all.===



Besides this, colonial architecture is very colorful as well, being that Venezuela is a tropical country the use of bright colors is very common.
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**Light**
=== When we talk about light, we have to talk about what light produces: shadow. Being in the tropic, Venezuela mostly has high temperature over the year, and that’s why is so important to protect the facades of the buildings and strain the light. Going back to the Ciudad Universitaria we can see how Villanueva creates lattice walls that let the light get into the space in a very interesting way as in the Plaza Cubierta. ===



**Texture**
===Texture is that specific quality of a surface which results for the tridimensional surface.There are two types of texture: visual and tactile. === ===The Miraflores Palace is the official headquarters of the Venezuelan Government, this building was constructed between 1884 and 1897 with a neoclassicism style. The external walls are cover with frieze, which can have a smooth texture or a wrinkled texture, depending on the way it is made, this texture is tactile.===



===The Banaven Building, also known as the Black Cube of Chuao, is covered entirely by dark glass, this material has a smooth texture but it also gives an illusion of mix textures because of its capacity to reflect the objects around, so this building has a tactile and visual texture.===



**Acoustics**
===To talk about acoustics is to talk about the Aula Magna placed in the Ciudad Universitaria and designed by Carlos Raul Villanueva too. The acoustic room is one of the best in the world and it is the used of artistic elements to improve the acoustics that make it so special. As we see in the picture, the ceiling is partially covert by “Floating Clouds”, that were calculated in order to reflect the sound of different acoustic waves and towards different zones of hearing.===



The Repetition of elements, the composition and dimension are related to the rythm in architecture
===Colonial Architecture in Venezuela is a good example of rhythm. As we see in the picture there is a repetition of shapes by using the same type of window on the facade, causing the illusion of one unique building when actually there are several houses with the same style.===

===Once again Carlos Raul Villanueva uses rhythm by taking one unique shape as a module; the square, which is changed with different colors or even receding the walls as we see on the picture of the "Paraiso" Buildings. This way every horizontal section of the facade follows its own pattern making it a very interesting composition.===



**Circulation**
===One of the most important things of a building is a good circulation system which connects every space and supports the distinct functions of it. A good example of this is the San Jose's Benedict Abbey at Guigue in Valencia, which was designed by Jesus Tenreiro and constructed between 1986 and 1990.===



===The circulation of this building is mostly horizontal and it is conformed by hallways. As we see in the pictures the whole compound is formed by four volumes which are connected by a patio; this element is definitely the one that has the most dynamic flow.===



**Space & Scale**
===Scale can be defined as the set of numbers, amounts etc., used to measure or compare the level of something. Human scale means “of a scale comparable to a human being”. In Venezuela there are some troubles handling the scale, especially in Caracas, where we can see small places like Chacaito with a huge amount of vertical buildings that have over twenty floors and don’t considerate the affluence of pedestrians.===



===By the other hand there are a lot of poor communities with no control of scale at all. These zones grow fast and with no organization, so there isn’t any relation with human scale, an example is Petare, which is the biggest slum in South America.===



**In conclusion, Venezuela can be consider as unique from an architectural perspective, because of what we've seen. In every aspect (color, light, texture, acoustics, rhythm. circulation, space and scale) Venezuela has buildings and spaces with a high architectural value, and it is even more richer because of the diversity of styles and what is even more important we can find architecture with a purpose, which means that every decision made responds to a necessity of the people.**

**In my opinion this project is really interesting, because it help me realize how rich is my country and the value of its architecture, so I hope you enjoy it how much as I did.**