Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas

The Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas is, with UNAM (Mexico), one of 2 inscribed mid 20th Century Latin American University campuses – is this either a surprising coincidence or evidence of some genuine value in unexpected locations?

It is situated in the South East of this narrow east/west oriented city and is accessible by metro to the eponymous station. We had driven through it quickly on a previous visit to Caracas many years ago but, on our second visit, gave it more time on foot in the hope that it would yield more “value”. The place is not set up for tourists (or WHS enthusiasts!) and our greatest disappointment was that we couldn’t get into the “Aula Magna” – the University’s main hall for concerts etc. This building is “famed” for the acoustic “clouds” (also dubbed “flying saucers”) by Alexander Calder, the “inventor” of mobile sculptures. As the other reviewers have noted, a particular aspect of the campus is the presence of long concrete covered walkways between the various buildings. We also visited the botanical gardens which are situated to the right of the northern entrance. We did so originally solely to have a pleasant walk through tropical plants away from the city bustle and hadn’t realized that they are a fully WHS-Inscribed part of the university and hold the botany faculty. We were “royally” welcomed by the staff when our Taxi driver who had brought us up from the port city of La Guaira rather warmed to the idea of …

Site visited in March, 2011. Easy accessibile (close to a metro station), the whole area due to its university status looks pretty safe (at least during the daytime), security was the main concern while visiting Venezuela. At first it looks a little bit dissappointingly - all the buildings are made of concrete, they are modern (in terms of architecture style) but after a while you can spot that it is really an entire complex of different buildings but designed in the same manner. Architecture is simple but practical, some solutions are spectacular (those passages allowing students to walk in shadow during sunny days). So for me the place is interesting although I know that some people may be dissapointed.

I visited the site in August 2009.

The non-architect may wonder at first what all the fuss is about but as you stroll along the concrete covered passageways and look around the vision of the architect slowly emerges. Whether or not you like the style, there is a cohension and obvious "stamp" of an individual on the buildings and landscape without any quality of boring sameness or jarring differences in style or architectural "interactions." That is what the inscription as a heritage site appears to celebrate.

I was surprised at how the use of concrete takes into account, for the most part, the tropical setting with open spaces, covered arcades, access to natural light and lines and curves that often blunt the heaviness one might associate with concrete.

There were buildings that needed repair, some more than others, and broken windows, leaks and cracks in some of the structures but the overall neglect the previous publisher noted seems to have been addressed in some cases. Some of the buildings, especially the student residences looked like government housing projects or cheap "garden apartments" while others, such as the cafeteria were truly unique in their design and use of space. Unfortunately the college was not in session and it was not possible to get a look inside some of the more intriguing structures such as the concert hall or to get a feel for how humans interact with the architectural space.

Depending on how interested you are in architecture an hour or …