University City of Caracas as a colour laboratory: polychromie in the work of Carlos Raúl Villanueva

Abstract

This article analyzes the meaning of color in the work of Carlos Raúl Villanueva, focusing on his most relevant work: the Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas and the inf luence it had on later works such as the 1967 Montreal Exposition Pavilion. The research delves into the sources and functions of colors in an architecture as a temporary space. It will support the hypothesis that color, in Villanueva, is the basis of an architecture understood as a social act that announces significant and idiosyncratic values of its country. The chromatic, in his work, is an architectural component that brings expressiveness to the tectonic by fostering a spatial continuum. Villanueva creates an intuitive architectural conception in which the chromatic globality of the colors of the artists invited to participate with him in the architectural event, make the reading of the singular spatiality of his work understandable. In its design and construction plans, scales and proportions of the artistic works are located and delimited in constellations that stimulate the space-time experience in the routes. In space, the rest of the arts come together, integrating themselves through color in synthesis under the framework of architecture.