Ciudad Universitaria
Ciudad Universitaria, or University City, located in Caracas, Venezuela, is a significant cultural and educational complex that serves as the home of the Central University of Venezuela. Designed primarily by renowned Venezuelan modernist architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva between 1944 and 1970, the campus spans approximately ninety acres and features around forty buildings that exemplify the integration of architecture and visual arts. Villanueva's vision emphasized the collaboration between art and architecture, resulting in a campus adorned with murals, sculptures, and artistic facades created by notable artists such as Alexander Calder, Ferdinand Léger, and Alejandro Otero.
The historical context of Ciudad Universitaria is rooted in the mid-20th century when the Venezuelan government sought to modernize the country's educational infrastructure, aided by its oil wealth. The design reflects modernist principles while also adapting to the local environment, incorporating elements like covered walkways and plazas to accommodate Caracas's tropical climate. In recognition of its architectural and artistic significance, UNESCO designated Ciudad Universitaria as a World Heritage Site in 2000, highlighting its role as a landmark of mid-century urban design. Although the campus has experienced age-related deterioration and challenges due to an increased student population, it remains a vital cultural hub and continues to inspire discussions about the relationship between education, architecture, and the arts.
Ciudad Universitaria
Site information
- Official name: Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas
- Location: Caracas, Venezuela
- Type: Cultural
- Year of inscription: 2000
The Ciudad Universitaria, or University City, in Caracas is the home of the Central University of Venezuela. The campus was constructed between 1944 and 1970 and was primarily designed by a single architect, the Venezuelan modernist Carlos Raúl Villanueva (1900–75). The complex, which covers about ninety acres (220 hectares) of land and includes forty buildings, embodies Villanueva's belief in the importance of integrating the visual arts into architectural design and is known for its integration of murals, sculptures, artistic facades, and other artwork into its structures. Among the artists represented at the complex are American sculptor Alexander Calder, French painter and sculptor Ferdinand Léger, and Venezuelan muralist Alejandro Otero. Featuring large modern artworks in significant numbers, the project became a catalyst for artistic innovation in Venezuela. It is valued as an exceptional example of mid-twentieth century architecture and urban planning, as well as for its artistic elements and its demonstration of Villanueva's ideal of synergy between architecture and the visual arts.
History
In the 1930s and 1940s, global demands for higher education encouraged urban planners and architects to think about college campuses as "university cities"—miniature, self-contained urban areas where they could put their ideas into practice. In Venezuela, oil wealth allowed the state to support a wide range of public projects. In 1941, the government began to consolidate the activities of the Central University at a new central campus, for which a master plan was completed in 1943. In 1944, French-trained Villanueva was hired to lead the project. Especially during the regime of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez (1952–58), whose "New National Deal" plan sought to modernize Venezuela's society and built environment, the university city grew rapidly.
The first elements of the Ciudad Universitaria, the hospital and medical school, were already under construction when Villanueva was appointed. These buildings and the original plan for the campus reflected older architectural traditions, with a formal layout in the Beaux Arts style and Art Deco details on the structures. After Villanueva took charge, however, he discarded the original plan and began to design buildings that reflected his modernist philosophy. As a modernist, he used and celebrated technically advanced materials, especially reinforced concrete. His buildings were often asymmetrically shaped, or made use of basic shapes like cubes, and lacked traditional elements like ornamented entrances. But Villanueva disagreed with one tenet of modernism, its overall dislike of ornament. He believed in close collaboration between architecture and art, especially abstract art, in the creation of buildings and public spaces.
The central area of the campus, constructed during 1952 and 1953, was the center of Villanueva's "Synthesis of the Arts" project. He described its design in terms of five "movements," a term he borrowed from music and used to describe the groups of murals, sculptures, and other artwork within the project. Villanueva also innovated by organizing the complex in terms of circulation through the campus, designing the pedestrian paths, a system of covered walkways to protect people from Venezuela's tropical sun, as extensions of the interior spaces and frames for the art. He placed a covered outdoor plaza at the center, where it connected to the campus's main auditorium and other academic buildings and acted as a public square for the university.
Between 1954 and 1967 Villanueva designed additional professional and technical schools for the university, of which the School of Architecture was considered most important in terms of the integration of art and architecture. The campus was still growing when ill health led to his retirement from the project in 1970. It has since been maintained as an architectural and artistic assemblage, but by the early 2010s the central parts of the campus were more than fifty years old, leading to age-related deterioration of the structures. By the mid-2010s, the campus, built for a student body of six thousand, served more than fifty thousand students, and the growing institution began to require updates and expansions that challenged Villanueva's vision. Although UNESCO considers the site to have retained its overall authenticity, World Monuments Watch added it to its watch list in 2015, citing issues of expansion and preservation.
Significance
UNESCO inscribed the Ciudad Universitaria as a World Heritage Site based on the dual criteria of human creative genius its significance in human history. The inscription applauded Villanueva and his artist collaborators for the creativity of the campus and for its integration of art as an essential part of the whole. In addition to the many murals that adorn the campus buildings and the sculptures that are scattered through its public spaces, this collaboration is expressed through the buildings themselves. In the main auditorium, the Aula Magna, the acoustic baffles are sculptures by Calder, called "Flying Saucers." They were adapted by acoustic engineer Robert Newman from Calder's sketches to combine function with a modern aesthetic. The library contains a wall of stained glass designed by Léger and made by glass artist Jean Barillet. The outside of the School of Architecture tower is also an example of this close collaboration, covered in a design by Otero executed in blue mosaic tiles.
The site is considered significant in human history because it exemplifies the dominant theories of urban design, architecture, and art during the mid-twentieth century in a single place with a coherent unifying vision. The central campus is one of the best examples in the world of how these ideas could be applied in practice. UNESCO also considers the Ciudad Universitaria to be significant because Villanueva and his collaborators took philosophies and aesthetics that originated in Europe and North America and adapted them to fit the needs of the tropical environment. The system of covered walkways and the covered central plaza represent a close connection between Villanueva's universal ideals and his local concerns.
Bibliography
Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas. World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO. HYPERLINK "http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/986" whc.unesco.org/en/list/986. Accessed 12 December 2016.
"Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas." World Monuments Watch. World Monuments Fund, 2015, RLINK "http://www.wmf.org/project/ciudad-universitaria-de-caracas" www.wmf.org/project/ciudad-universitaria-de-caracas.
Fraser, Valerie. Building the New World: Studies in the Modern Architecture of Latin America, 1930-1960. Verso, 2000.
Villanueva, Paulina, and Marciá Pintó. Carlos Raúl Villanueva. Princeton Architectural Press, 2000.
Villota Peña, Jorge. "The Hyper Americans! Modern Architecture in Venezuela during the 1950s." Dissertation, U. of Texas, 2014, repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/25069.