Purposes

 PURPOSES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN



Probably some people think that Architecture and Urban design are the same “thing”. But after reading the complete information about each of them, one could realize that there are important and interesting differences between both. Architecture, worries more about the structure, what will be its function or settings according to a context. Urban design, worries more about making places, organizing cities depending of the needs.

Between the purposes of architecture, we can mention that it tries to provide settings for certain activities, to mark power, status, or privacy. Also tries to separate domain and differentiate between here and there, sacred and profane, men and women, front and back, private and public, habitable and uninhabitable, and so on.

Talking about the purposes of Urban design, we can indicate that it Developes ‘visions’ for places – using creativity and imagination to invent or re-invent the environments we live and work in. Researches and analyzes places and people – understanding the physical, political, economic, spatial and psychological context of the places you work with and the people who use them.

Now that I learned more about both, Architecture and Urban design, I can easily say that Caracas is not standing well in those both terms, because there are so many factors that affect their development in the city. In architecture, Caracas has few significant buildings or constructions; one could be the two towers of "Parque Central". In general terms, urban planning in Caracas is chaotic really; it hadn’t been good planned at all.

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