Faculty of Engineering Library, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas.

The Faculty of Engineering Library (Biblioteca Facultad Ingeniería) of the Central University of Venezuela is located in the University City of Caracas. Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is a commercial and cultural center located in a northern mountain valley. It was designed by the noted architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva (1900 – 1975), whose ideas were so lively and lasting in importance that the main university campus, Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The University City of Caracas is the only modern university campus designed by a single architect to be honored as a World Heritage Site. The university itself dates back to the early 1700s. Carlos Raúl Villanueva’s campus took a long time to construct, from the 1940s until the 1960s. It included administrative buildings, faculties, student housing, sports facilities, public spaces, and a botanical garden. Original artworks by many noted modern sculptors and painters were included, including some by the American artist Alexander Calder, the Frenchman Fernand Léger, the German-French painter and poet Jean Arp, Cuba’s Wifredo Lam, and others. To decorate almost 40 new buildings, almost 30 contemporary artists were invited to produce artworks. Born in London, Villanueva had a strong sense of European and American modernism in art. In his Faculty of Engineering building, color helps to give a bright and joyful impression, as well as graceful curves in the design. There is a sense of celebration in the structure, and the notion that all the arts are linked cooperatively, which the architect explained in a statement in 1954:

The environment of the fine arts formulates the need for the integration of painting and sculpture with architecture, for a return from the ancient elements of color and volume to the white architectonic organism, using the language of the great arts purified by a long evolutionary process. To be limited to just decorating walls or placing paintings and sculptures on improvised places does not have, in terms of the synthesis of the arts, more value than it already has in the collection of a museum. The idea of this synthesis could only give positive results when painting and sculpture find the architectonical reasons of their incorporation in the built environment, that is to say, only when the artist paints and models thinking about the spatial elements that constitute the architectonic work. The spirit of the Synthesis of the Arts is to corroborate and highlight the real space-form of the architectural design; or in an inverse process, disperse and transform the real volumes in relations that are purely special.

As a result of this philosophy, in other faculties as well, especially the faculties of architecture, dentistry, humanities, central library, and concert hall, the buildings seem to fit together. Villanueva tried to create what he called intelligent buildings, featuring cross ventilation to control the level of heat. Sheltering students, faculty, and staff from the challenging urban atmosphere of Caracas, covered walkways protect visitors from the weather.

Thailand and Venezuela

Scientific research cooperation

In 2001, The Journal of Clinical Microbiology (JCM) published an innovative article by Dr. Jiraporn Suksawat of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Khon Kaen University, and colleagues. Reflecting Dr. Jiraporn’s expertise in microbiology, parasitology, and entomology, the article was part of a larger study to investigate tick-borne infections in dogs from Thailand and Venezuela. Examining whether health problems from the dogs could be seen in their ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences, the study used the fact that Thailand and Venezuela are geographically divergent to see what might be shared in common genetically in the animal world:

A six-year-old female poodle was admitted to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand, for evaluation of peridontal disease. Blood from the dog from Venezuela (an adult male mixed-breed dog) was sent to Unidad de Investigacions Clinicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Veterinarias, Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela, for hematologic evaluation. The dog was reportedly healthy, but another dog from the same household had died recently of a febrile illness compatible with ehrlichiosis, raising the possibility for a tick-transmitted infection. Neither dog had traveled outside of the country of origin.

Results of the study apparently provided the first molecular evidence of health problems that dogs in Thailand and Venezuela share. The more veterinarians know about the origins of such diseases afflicting animals around the world, the more likely it is that effective treatments and cures may be found in the future.

Cultural exchange

Among cultural exchanges, the celebrated Venezuelan chef Adrian Yanez, directs the menus at the restaurant La Rumba in Hua Hin, a leading example of Venezuelan food traditions in the ASEAN community. It is located on soi 94 behind G Hua Hin Resort & Mall, about 250m from Phetkasem Road, between Smile Hua Hin Resort and Narawan Hotel. The restaurant benefits from the extensive training of Chef Yanez, who gained experience in Colombia and Peru as well as Spain. This included stints at such highly respected dining spots as Malabar restaurant in San Isidro, Peru and Casa Marcial in Asturias, Spain. At La Rumba, customers listen to Latin music, including salsa, bossa nova, latin jazz, merengue, bachata, lambada, and samba, while waiting for their orders. These include spicy shrimp cocktail and fosforera, a typically Venezuelan soup made with crab, shrimp, octopus, squid, mussels, and fish. Red mullet cooked in a sauce of curry and coconut milk is another favorite, Asado Negro, a dish of pork stewed in its juices with mashed potatoes and sweet bananas. Chicken marinated in red wine, served with pasta, and a range of gourmet pizzas are other choices. According to The Venezuelan Week blog, Chef Yanez studied at the Center for Gastronomic Studies (CEGA) in Caracas, where he later taught. Although he was a sociology major at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, also in Caracas, he ultimately chose cooking as a profession, remembering his grandmother’s skills with traditional dishes. He also has expertise as a pastry chef, which should make the ends of meals as interesting as the rest of the experience.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)