To explain any phenomenon in the most concise way, we need to go “from the general to the particular”. So, if we want to elucidate architecture from urban planning, we must necessarily go from the major scale (urban planning) to the minor scale (architecture).Urban planning focuses its attention on the organization of places such as cities, villages, towns, neighborhoods, and others. Its work goes from the block to the metropolis, from the small town to the center of the world. We depend on it to have a better life and feel ourselves at home. But since urban planning is a relatively new profession, most of the cities we live in are not designed in a successful way. In fact, there are some that are even uncomfortable. They’ve been designed by people with no experience on urban planning, or people with no sense of design at all. Most of these cities have been planned by engineers (who focus on efficiency), architects (who focus - or focused – only on esthetics), landscape designers (who focus on the beauty of the environment), and other professionals who watched urban planning from other perspectives.
Urban planning is a particularly challenging profession because it must cover a very wide range of tastes, preferences and trends. Whereas architecture must cover the needs of a small group of people, or even one only person. But, it is exactly here where it has its own big challenge: it takes care of a few, but it means that it must take into account the preferences of each one of these few. The mass has common thoughts, but every head is a world. Doesn’t this make architecture a more complex career? Not really. An architect must cover particular needs at the same time that responds to a context; and urban planners must cover the community needs, responding to the buildings that have already been raised. This is the reason why these two types of professionals work always together: No matter the scale, they will always work with spaces.
HOW DOES CARACAS STAND IN TERMS OF BOTH, ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING?
Caracas has a wide range of architectural styles. It seems some sort of time machine: colonial buildings close to the major square, buildings of the epoch of Marcos Perez Jimenez. Modern buildings built in the economic centers of the city. Well planned urbanizations in the suburbs. It truly has a lot to offer in the present, and also a lot of potential to be an example in the future. Nevertheless, the urban planning presents flaws in almost all of its extension. There were several attempts of modernizing the city, but none of them was fulfilled in its totality. There is the need of repairing the damages made by this lack of efficiency in the city.
To explain any phenomenon in the most concise way, we need to go “from the general to the particular”. So, if we want to elucidate architecture from urban planning, we must necessarily go from the major scale (urban planning) to the minor scale (architecture).Urban planning focuses its attention on the organization of places such as cities, villages, towns, neighborhoods, and others. Its work goes from the block to the metropolis, from the small town to the center of the world. We depend on it to have a better life and feel ourselves at home. But since urban planning is a relatively new profession, most of the cities we live in are not designed in a successful way. In fact, there are some that are even uncomfortable. They’ve been designed by people with no experience on urban planning, or people with no sense of design at all. Most of these cities have been planned by engineers (who focus on efficiency), architects (who focus - or focused – only on esthetics), landscape designers (who focus on the beauty of the environment), and other professionals who watched urban planning from other perspectives.
Urban planning is a particularly challenging profession because it must cover a very wide range of tastes, preferences and trends. Whereas architecture must cover the needs of a small group of people, or even one only person. But, it is exactly here where it has its own big challenge: it takes care of a few, but it means that it must take into account the preferences of each one of these few. The mass has common thoughts, but every head is a world. Doesn’t this make architecture a more complex career? Not really. An architect must cover particular needs at the same time that responds to a context; and urban planners must cover the community needs, responding to the buildings that have already been raised. This is the reason why these two types of professionals work always together: No matter the scale, they will always work with spaces.
HOW DOES CARACAS STAND IN TERMS OF BOTH, ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING?
Caracas has a wide range of architectural styles. It seems some sort of time machine: colonial buildings close to the major square, buildings of the epoch of Marcos Perez Jimenez. Modern buildings built in the economic centers of the city. Well planned urbanizations in the suburbs. It truly has a lot to offer in the present, and also a lot of potential to be an example in the future. Nevertheless, the urban planning presents flaws in almost all of its extension. There were several attempts of modernizing the city, but none of them was fulfilled in its totality. There is the need of repairing the damages made by this lack of efficiency in the city.