Comparing+and+contrasting+the+purposes+of+architecture+and+urban+planning



By comparing the results of the work of an architect and an urban planner, we can immediately see that their final purpose is the same, which is to create rich and comfortable spaces where the people feel secure and connected with the environment they live in. But, given that their approaches to this final purpose are different in more ways than one, we can expect several ideas from each career to be very contrasting with each other. The most known contrast between architecture and urban planning is aesthetics versus functionality. This is, because most of the urban planners think that the appearance of the building itself doesn’t really matters if it complies with the contextual requirements of the place it was built in**//;//** on the other hand, some architects don’t think or think poorly on the impact the building has in the context, focusing solely on its aesthetics. A balance between these two aspects is required to make “good” architecture. If we see it philosophically, it’s by communicating or expressing feelings that architecture and urban planning can articulate __the spaces__, because those feelings can tell us something about the people who constructed the building or the importance of the place where it is constructed, and so on. Finally, in my opinion Caracas, in general, has well-exploited sectors regarding architecture, even with the colonial architecture found downtown, where avery good urbanism can also be found. Nowadays, the urbanism in Caracas is good and really evident in some places, but there is also the factor of overpopulation that should be considered, because that massive amount of people can “overload” the city’s urban capacity, almost making this urbanism disappear completely.  media type="file" key="Caracas urbanism.mp3"