Carlos Raúl Villanueva (1900–1975) was a Venezuelan modernist architect, born in London and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, who helped modernise Caracas and Maracay. He believed painting and sculpture should be joined with architecture, a "synthesis of the arts". His masterwork, the University City of Caracas, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
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He worked on the campus of the Central University of Venezuela from 1944 to 1970. In its Aula Magna (1953), Alexander Calder's "Floating Clouds" hang from the ceiling: coloured panels that are both art and part of the hall's acoustics. The campus also holds the Covered Plaza, University City of Caracas (1954). In housing, his El Silencio redevelopment in Caracas provided 7,797 apartments, and he later designed the 23 de Enero Superblocks (1957). The Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art in Ciudad Bolívar (1973), a late work, links six simple buildings by covered walkways around a garden of art; Villanueva wanted it "so pure that there is no longer an appreciable difference between roofs, walls and natural spaces". Carlos Raúl Villanueva's buildings are studied for joining art, landscape and modern architecture.
Estadio Universitario de Caracas1951 · Caracas
Aula Magna, Central University of Venezuela1953 · Caracas
Clock Tower, Central University of Venezuela1954 · Caracas
Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art1973 · Ciudad Bolívar
Olympic Stadium, Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas1951 · Caracas
Central Library, Central University of Venezuela1953 · Caracas
Covered Plaza, University City of Caracas1954 · Caracas
23 de Enero Superblocks1957 · Caracas
Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas (1976 building)1976 · Caracas