Public space public stage. Reinventing collective Caracas

Boundaries divide, define and confront the fragments they enclose. Disperse, they work in independence and conform the collage of what is today the Metropolitan District of Caracas. Lacking a unified vision to relate all the fragments as part of a larger whole, the city continues to grow further apart. For centuries, Caracas remained faithful to its foundational grid. After the sudden prosperity that oil production brought, the city broke and small nuclei of localized growth began to emerge along an infrastructural axis that connected the east and west extremes of the valley. Expansion was such that, in a couple of decades, it grew over four times its original extent. Segregation is a well-known concept in Caracas’ growth history, and is also present in the behavioral patterns of its citizens today. The situation has been further hyperbolized with the rise of criminality rates in the city. The erection of walls, a former method for distancing communities from the exterior, have found a meaning as a ‘necessary’ measure in the increasingly violent Caracas. In a search for safety, citizens sheltered in the private; increasingly abandoning Caracas’ public spaces. Shopping malls, with their controlled scenarios and guided circumstances, have become the sole meeting point for large portions of the population. Thus, what is supposed to be the recollection point for a metropolis starts to lose its integratory and plural character. The cycle consolidates, the lonelier and darker, the more feared and avoided. More and more, the routine settles and without realizing, a chronic state of paranoia is accepted. With so many imposed restrictions, one must break free. One cannot continue to erect more monuments to the fear. One must confront it, accept it, and defy it. Instead of hiding in the comfortable known, the proposal aims to redefine the distorted concept of public space in Caracas, by providing a set of open stages for collective use. Public stages, where citizens are invited to take action and own a space in their city.