“Soleil, que me veux-tu?”: Protección climática en la Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas
[EN] The response to climate and the sun played a central role in the architectural work of Carlos Raul Villanueva. Based on a documentary, photographic, and planimetric study, and on a review of bibliographic, journalistic, and academic material, the climate protection elements of the University Ci...
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) |
| Repository: | RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia |
| Language: | Spanish |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/222725 |
| Online Access: | https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/222725 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Contemporary architecture Carlos Raul Villanueva University City of Caracas Le Corbusier Climate protection Arquitectura contemporánea Carlos Raúl Villanueva Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas Protección climática Architecture contemporaine Cité Universitaire de Caracas Protection climatique |
| Summary: | [EN] The response to climate and the sun played a central role in the architectural work of Carlos Raul Villanueva. Based on a documentary, photographic, and planimetric study, and on a review of bibliographic, journalistic, and academic material, the climate protection elements of the University City in Caracas are analyzed, such as canopies, sunshades, parasols, and openwork concrete blocks, many of which allude to those developed by Le Corbusier around the 1930s -particularly evident in his projects for Africa and South America- the formal and expressive grammar constitutive of an architecture attentive to both the elements and contextual factors, as well as to vernacular constructions. Around 1945, Villanueva incorporated protective elements that he reinforced, particularly in the contemporary redefinition of the university complex around 1950, precisely at a time when the monumentality of raw concrete and its plastic and symbolic use, as well as concerns about climate and light in the third world, played an important role in the definition of new protective measures that referred to a patrimonial and identitary construction, an artistic symbol of Venezuela's modernizing ideal. |
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