CIUDAD UNIVERSITARIA

Designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva, completed 1977 Caracas, Venezuela
The Ciudad Universitaria of Caracas (City University of Caracas, also known as the
Universidad Central de Venezuela [UCV] or Central University of Venezuela), designed
by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, is regarded as the country’s most
important example of modernist architecture. Derived from Le Corbusier’s works, the
campus plan’s Venezuelaninflected organicism set a new standard for Venezuelan
architects. The “synthesis of the arts” it proposed has never been surpassed. Despite the
dilemma its association with the military government of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez
(1948–58) presented for artists working on the project, its success with both Venezuelan
elites and the international architectural community significantly influenced the course of
Venezuelan architecture.
Villanueva’s initial conception of the campus plan as well as early building designs
make use of monumental axes and symmetrical disposition of masses—elements that
betray his Beaux-Arts education. The University Hospital (1943), designed in the first
phase of construction from 1944 to 1949, demonstrates this traditional approach.
Villanueva modified the hospital’s facade later in an attempt to integrate it with the rest
of the campus; in subsequent stages of the design, both individual buildings and the
overall plan become more flexible and organic. For example, in the second phase of
construction (1950–52), Villanueva made the transition to a full-fledged modernism in
the Olympic Stadium (1950). Recalling the Mexican architect Felix Candela’s
experiments in reinforced concrete, the oval grandstand of the stadium resembles the
prow of a great ship; sustained by barely visible columns, its bulk seems to defy gravity.
Strong contrasts of tropical light and shadow play important roles in this and later
structures, and the architect’s use of reinforced concrete to mold forms reappears as well.
The necessity for covered spaces and walkways because of the camqueño tropical climate
became a source of invention for Villanueva at the UCV. Citing the need to shelter
students from the wind, rain, and sun, he covered the 1428-meter-long sidewalk that links
various zones of the campus with a canopy of reinforced concrete, supported by columns,
that appears to float above the ground. The covered sidewalk also acts as an orienting
path through the free-form ground plan of the campus and terminates in the physical and
spiritual center of the university, the Plaza Cubierta (Covered Plaza).
The Aula Magna (Amphitheater) and the Covered Plaza (third phase of construction,
1952–53) that surrounds it best embody the architect’s principles of the synthesis of the
arts, as well as his attempt to create an “outdoor museum” by integrating artworks and
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structures with the landscape. The Covered Plaza, an enormous roof of reinforced
concrete, creates heavily shaded areas punctuated by light effects produced by bris -s oleil walls
cast in different patterns. Sculpture by Europeans Henri Laurens and Jean Arp, murals in
materials as diverse as ceramic, mosaic, aluminum, stone, bronze, and glass by Fernand
Léger, Antoine Pevsner, Victor Vasarely, and Venezuelans Mateo Manaure, Pascual
Navarro, and Carlos González Bogen, among others, punctuate the space and are grouped
so as to create smaller irregularly shaped areas under the canopy and just outside it. Many
of these works make use of strong, saturated colors, which are set off by a backdrop of
tropical foliage and bright sky.
Seen from above, the Aula Magna’s cone-shaped auditorium is emphasized by
repeating wing-shaped sections rising from the roofline in two tiers. The reference to
flight on the exterior is manifested more explicitly in the interior, specifically in the
acoustic panels designed by U.S. sculptor Alexander Calder, which he called Platillos
Voladores or Nubes Acústicas (Flying Saucers or Acoustic Clouds, 1953). Huge, rounded
shapes in various colors, attached to walls and ceilings, appear to float over the fixed
auditorium seats. Critics cite the resulting marriage of form and function as the sole
instance in which Villanueva achieved a synthesis of the arts at the university.
The School of Odontology (1957), from the fourth stage of construction (1954–58),
demonstrates an important step in the evolution of Villanueva’s designs for the campus.
Citing the library at the Ciudad Universitaria in Mexico City as failing to integrate art and
architecture because Mexican artist Juan O’Gorman’s murals were figurative in style and,
thus, mere decoration, Villanueva made use of polychromatic facades on the exterior of
this building (Policromía, by Omar Carreño). He also commissioned Alejandro Otero and
Oswaldo Vigas, among other artists, to design abstract murals in paint and mosaic for the
exteriors of other buildings.
Constructed during the petroleum boom of the 1950s and supported by a military
regime committed to renovating the capital city, the UCV played an important role in
advertising the success of the dictatorship in achieving its goals of order and progress.
Heralded in the Venezuelan press to this day as the jewel of Venezuelan architecture,
through the years its significance as an architectural site has superseded its original
political associations. Periodic calls are made in the press for its restoration, as its
buildings and artworks have suffered significant deterioration and misuse. Built for four
to five thousand students, the university today has an enrollment of over 50,000 and
covers an area of 204 hectares, or 504 acres.
The UCV’s influence on Venezuelan architecture, perhaps because of its audacity and
scope, has been diffuse. Its celebration of the Venezuelan landscape through the lens of
European modernism spawned no imitators, but it did legitimate modernism as a valid
style for public architecture. In addition, a major consequence of Villanueva’s synthesis
of the arts has been the proliferation of public art projects throughout the city: large-scale
art dominates the urban experience in Caracas. Freestanding sculptures and wall murals
in subway stations, alongside highways, in plaza centers, and in buildings transform the
city into a living exemplar of Villanueva’s “outdoor museum.”
International critics frequently compare Villanueva’s UCV with Le Corbusier’s
designs for Chandigarh and Lucio Costa’s for Brasilia, because of these projects’
similarities of scope and intention, but Villanueva’s style is regarded as less fully
realized. As one of the few extant examples of large-scale modernist experiments carried
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to fruition outside Europe, however, the UCV continues to be of interest to the
international architectural community.