Final+Project

FINAL PROJECT

__**INTRODUCTION**__ Hi, my name is Mikel Amenabar and I’m going to talk about some buildings located in Caracas, Venezuela and their texture, color, lights, acoustics and spaces. The buildings that I’m going to present are: -Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex -Plaza Francia -Helicoide -Plaza Venezuela -Paseo Los Próceres

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**Caracas**

Caracas is a city located in Venezuela, founded in 1568 under the name of Santiago de Leon de Caracas by Diego de Losada. In the early twentieth century Caracas was still a small town with low size buildings and red roofs. Then in the following decades it made some progress for the city. Caracas is in a valley of the Cordillera de la Costa, separate the Caribbean Sea about 15 km by the Avila National Park. **Teresa Carreño Theater (Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex) ** It was built in the 1970s. Is one of the most important Theaters of Venezuela. In this theater are performances of concerts, operas, ballet and symphonies. It is located in the Caobos Park and the Caracas Athenaeum. This cultural complex has two phases: the Jose Felix Rivas room inaugurated in 1976 and the Rios Reyna room inaugurated in 1983. One of the phases (Jose Felix Rivas) has a form of a semicircular Greek theater for a better view of the stage and a better wave of sound. The theatre measures 22 meters, it means a lot of space to satisfy the goal of the performances.

**Plaza Francia** Plaza Francia is a square located in Altamira. It was built in the 1940s and opened in 1945; it was designed by the planner Luis Roche. In this square are the obelisk of Altamira, the reflecting pool, the fountain and the main output of the Caracas subway. When it gets dark, the source is illuminated by a sequence of colors that catch the attention of people; those colors make the area a wonderful place to go and admire.

**Helicoide**



The Helicoide is a building in Caracas located in Roca Tarpeya in St. Augustine Parish in the extension of military avenues. It was built in 1961. It works as the site of Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional (SEBIN) and Universidad Nacional Experimental Politécnica de la Fuerza Armada Nacional (UNEFA). The building has triangular geometric shape and was built on a hill which gives a great pyramidal form.

** Plaza Venezuela ** Plaza Venezuela is located in the parish of El Recreo, It was opened in 1940 and stands at the geographic center of Caracas. It is a pedestrian and distributor road, in this place are several monuments like a fountain with lights that incorporates music, the monument to Christopher Columbus and Manuel de la Cova, the tribute to Andres Bello and the sculpture to Abra Solar. This place has a diversity of lights of different colors and a circular form. The sounds will be expanded because it is a very open and wide area.

** Paseo los ****Próceres** Paseo los Próceres is a monument opened in 1956 in the government of President Marcos Perez Jimenez. The Próceres is defined by two rows of light poles by way of virtual walls. In this monument are: a courtyard of the parades, the monoliths of heroes, an oval of fountains, gardens and baroque ornaments. This monument consists of four parallelograms: two vertical manufactured in marble and two horizontal columns in black marble, each 30 meters long and weighing a total of 300 tons. This place plays a lot with the lights so people can better appreciate the spaces found in it. The illumination is very extraordinary and remarkable.

__**CONCLUSION**__ This city has a lot of buildings that represents her essence. Those buildings were built by different colors, texture, spaces and lights; each one represents the function of those constructions; the mixture and multiplicity of them make Venezuelan architecture and urban planning unique, and by mixture or multiplicity I mean the diversity of colors, lights and textures that buildings have to make the area a better place.



I think the realization of this project helped me greatly from the knowledge gained throughout this course, as I could understand and use well in this final project. Now I know and I have the ability to explain the different qualities (good or bad) that some buildings have.


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 * //__@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKcxd1BQFGE __ //**