page_title: University City of Caracas
section_title: Plaza Cubierta and Tierra de nadie complex
hierarchical_section_title: University City of Caracas / Plaza Cubierta and Tierra de nadie complex
caption_attribution_description: Español: Archivo histórico
context_page_description: The University City of Caracas, also known by the acronym CUC, is the main campus of the Central University of Venezuela, located in central Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. It was designed by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas is considered a "masterpiece" of architecture and urban planning, and greatly influenced Venezuelan architecture.
  Villanueva oversaw design from the end of the Second World War, and oversaw the campus construction for 20 years. He gave his skills and also vision of design principles to it, and it remains the only university campus designed by a single architect in the 20th century that has received cultural heritage recognition by UNESCO.
  The campus comprises a variety of different environments; its northern half is a Botanical Garden, with extensive sports facilities at its east, west and south. There are many different areas of the campus separated by Faculty and School, including Sciences, Architecture, Humanities, and Medicine.
context_section_description: The Conjunto Central (Central Complex) of the University City houses many academic, administrative, and social buildings, as well as some of the campus's more famous artworks.
  The Plaza Cubierta is an indoor-outdoor space designed as an "open museum", combining art into the environment and architecture into art, and is considered one of the most important artistic and cultural works of the country. It also connects many different buildings in the Central Complex.:356-358 Villanueva wanted the Plaza Cubierta to be the heart of the campus, the physical and cultural center, being inspired by halls and city center plazas in Europe. It was inaugurated with the attached Aula Magna on 2 March 1954.:359
  Buildings connected by the Plaza Cubierta include the main library, the rectory offices, the Federation of Students Center (students' union), the Aula Magna, the Paraninfo, and the concert hall (Sala de Conciertos). Of these, and all Villanueva's works, the Aula Magna is considered the "consummate example of synthesis".:356 The Plaza Cubierta is noted for having perforated walls, sections of open roof, and a series of ramps linking elements, giving it a feeling of flow. In 2013, an open library incentive was initiated in the covered walkways of the Plaza Cubierta, as an art project and to promote book-sharing and enjoyment of the campus recreational spaces.
  The Rectory Plaza was intended to be a car park, and was built in 1952. However, too many people wanted to use it, becoming overpopulated with cars, and so it closed to cars in or after February 1958. The Rectory building of UCV contains offices of university and student management, including the office for the current Rector and the Federation of Students Center (Students' union). Where there was a post office for the university is now a Bank of Venezuela location. The Rectory Plaza contains large murals, and the UCV Clock Tower.
  The Modernist art is not only historically renowned, but was used to the benefit of propaganda in the 1956 American film Assignment: Venezuela, trying to encourage oil workers to move to Maracaibo. Jim is taken on a tour of Venezuela, and arrives at the then newly built campus in an imported car, admiring the murals and statues.:97-98 In the film, he arrives in what would become Rectory Plaza, when it was still a car park.
  Behind the buildings of the Rectory Plaza, and jutting out from the main body of the Plaza Cubierta, is the Paraninfo. This is a small performing arts space, with large stained-glass windows.
  The Aula Magna is located between the main plaza elements of the Plaza Cubierta and the University's main library building. The interior of the hall is considered artistically and architecturally significant, especially its most notable feature, Alexander Calder's acoustic 'clouds', which serve both aesthetic and practical functions. They contributed to the science of interior space acoustics. The concrete shell-shaped building exterior is also architecturally significant. It has been named the "most important auditorium" at the university. The current director of the hall is Trina Medina, with the assistant director Rosario Silva Prieto.
  Beyond the Aula Magna are the Sala de Conciertos and the Central Library. The entrance to the Sala de Conciertos is within the covered hallways that connect the spaces, marked by a large yellow mural; another predominantly yellow mural marks the back of the Sala de Conciertos, visible in the Tierra de nadie. The library features a distinct red tile design on its exterior. On an eastern wall it has a large stained-glass window designed by Fernand Léger.
  Separating the Plaza Cubierta from the academic buildings and sporting facilities to the east is the Jorge Rodríguez Plaza, more commonly known as the Tierra de nadie (English: No-man's land). The Tierra de nadie is a public space that is one of the green spaces in the University City of Caracas. It takes its name because it is an area that belongs to none of the faculties that surround it.
  Maciá Pintó describes the functional and artistic design of the Plaza C
caption: Historical aerial view of the Central Complex
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