Chris Malcolm - Architecture & Urban Works

Defragging Caracas

year: 2013

Location: Caracas, Venezuela

advisor: Franco Micucci

description: La Carlota Airport is an airport on the verge of demilitarization, and one of the last open spaces centrally located in the heart of the dense and sporadically expanding Caracas. This projects looks at the last void as a moment to defrag, or essentially condense the existing parameters of the site i.e. new program, highway infrastructure, and public open space.

In an effort to not further segregate spaces via highway systems or a singular massive park, the three parameters are layered, and infrastructure is glorified as part of the public experience..Highways and circulation are framed, layered, and glorified within a park of connections and paths, as well as a large scale connection to the northern park, Parc del Este.

As for the architecture, 3 major moves -- simplistically dubbed the Line (cultural), point (monument), and surface (commercial) were created. Rather than define an urban masterplan of zoning, specifically programmed entities that respond to its neighboring context are employed. In this way the area can grow organically and either become more park or more urban as deemed by each entities growth.

The STADIOPLEX (West district / Surface Object) was designed as the commercial hub of the park, responding to the adjacent Mall and complex. It is a combination of a stadium, shopping plaza (surrounding), and hotel (on top). The intention was to provide several commercial ventures that all combine into one architecture, a microcosm of the masterplan in itself.

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