Sozialpalast tempelhof booklet 1

SOZIALPALAST TEMPELHOF

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GABRIELA GOELZER BACELAR KARINA IDRISOVA KOUROSH SHOJAEI ZARGHANI

THE CITY WITHIN THE BUILDING

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PR AD OF AR IP .R A IN IN CH ER NO IT E HE VA C HL TI TU ON RE PR & U O RB GR A AM N D

SOZIALPALAST TEMPELHOF

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GABRIELA GOELZER BACELAR KARINA IDRISOVA KOUROSH SHOJAEI ZARGHANI

THE CITY WITHIN THE BUILDING

EI HELICOIDE

SOZIALPALAST TEMPELHOF

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FIG 11 El Helicoide in the current urban fabric of Caracas.

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FIG 12 View of the model for the inicial project.

The complex was never completely finished.

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EL HELICOIDE BIOGRAPHY

LOCATION

During Pérez Jiménez’ term as the Venezuelan president (1953 - 1958), the doors of the country were open to European countries and the US. Consequently, the industries and public works were developed, which resulted into a political and economical stability and social prosperity.

The Helicoide is located in the neighbourhood of San Augustín del Sur, at the northeast area of Caracas. The area can be accessed by two important avenues - Fuerzas Armadas and President Medina Angarita - that connect the neighbourhood to the rest of the city and one highway that links it to the rest of the country.

It was in this period that the idea of designing a building such as “El Helicoide” emerged. This project is a product of the 50s spirit: “Not only an emblem of an epoch but also a characteristic silhouette on our city skyline.” wrote the architect Dirk A. Bornhorst in his book “El Helicoide” (2007).

The project was founded by the private sector - the first project designed by the company Arquitectura y Urbanismos C.A.. The international firm consisted of Dirk Bornhorst, Pedro Neuberger, Ivanka Ivanovich and José Luis Gomez. The Helicoide is the symbol of a young generation that wanted a bold and audacious design that would act as a landmark for the city of Caracas. The architects describe that anything seemed possible in that period, as long it was modern and unique.

The construction of “El Helicoide” started in 1956, but due to many political and economical difficulties, the works paralysed in 1961. In 1965 they were resumed, but still not concluded. It was only in 1982 that part of the initial project was finished, with the final addition of the aluminium dome at its highest level.

San Augustín del Sur started being urbanised in the period of the president Isaías Medina Angarita (1941-1945). It was initially planned to be the home of immigrants and of the working class of the city. During the 1950s the city started a modernisation program that continued in the 1960s and 1970s. New working and middle class residential districts spread in the valley of Caracas. The change of Venezuela’s agricultural economy to an oil dependent one stimulated the fast development of the capital, attracting populations from the rural area looking for better economic opportunity. This migration created the slums in the valley of Caracas.

Nowadays, the Helicoide is surrounded by underclass settlements and squatters, but because of its huge shape, it is visually connected to the topography of the city.

Because of the building’s monumentality, it has more of a symbolic meaning - it works as a reference point in the area. Although the original project intended to connect the building to the neighbourhood, this idea was never fulfilled since the building was never accessible to the public.

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FIG 13 El Helicoide works as a mark in the landscape.

FIG 14 The construction of Helicoide.

FIG 15 View of the aluminium dome, used as amphitheater, located on the top of the complex.

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EL HELICOIDE CHARACTER

PERFORMANCE

El Helicoide was designed as an international industrial-hub in Caracas, where all the industries have their stands. It also included a modern shopping mall, halls of exhibitions and events, a gym, swimming pools, restaurants, nurseries and discotheques, which were designed with the intention of improving conditions of the life of the offices and to reduce the future costs of maintenance to the lowest rate possible.

El Helicoide has never been used as its inicial proposal. Such a huge construction requires stable economical situation but Venezuela has been through a lot of hard political transformations. Although a great number of banks and members of the private sector tried in many ways to continue the construction of the spiral, it was finally the new democratic Government in 1965 who saved the project and acquired the Helicoide in the name of the Nation.

El Helicoide is located on a mountain in Las Asacias in Caracas. The main element of the project is a street spiralling upwards which serves also as the roof tops of the premises below. This would require less earth removal and containment walls. More than 3 kilometres roads were designed, one ascending and another descending, crossing each other midway and on the top of the complex. A geodesic dome is located in its top, in which a amphitheater is located. Initially, the project was to create a concrete dome, but along the construction a new one was designed by an american engineer.

The shops are located adjacent to the mais spiralling street, each of them having a 7.5 m frontage but differing in depth. Some of them were high enough to allow the installation of a Mezzanine. A long access tunnel ran behind the premises between their rare walls and the rock itself, holding up the air-conditioning ducts, gas, electricity and water installations, as well as a closed-circuit TV lines.

Over the next thirty years a wide number of uses were suggested such as museum, library, cultural center and even holy ground. In September 1986 part of the installations were handed over to the DISIP police force, the Venezuelan Intelligence Service. In the term of the president Rafael Caldera, the building was completely turned over to the DISIP and its internal spaces were redesigned to its new bureaucratic use. Since 1993, the Helicoide also homes the Universidade Nacional Experimental de la Seguridad (UNES), a specialises university which is responsible for the formation of official of public safety.

Unfortunately, the building was never used as it was initially intended and the changes in its project are not public. But the complex is definitely one symbol in the city of Caracas, representing the prosperity of Venezuela’s past and its current political situation.

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SURPLUS TRANSFER Program Space

Identity

Space The most remarkable aspect of the Project of El Helicoide in Caracas is the fact that the building not only build in a mountain but is actually part of the topography of the city. This characteristic, allied with the huge scale of the complex, makes it a mark in the urban fabric. Keeping these in mind the transfer to the Tempelhof plot was realized.

One of the basis of the project was the use of the building as a way to create a new landscape for the site of the Tempelhof airport. This was achieved with the use of different heights in buildings and ramps that connect different functions. This artificial topography of the lower level Podium, unifies nature with architecture and creates a vast variety of spaces for different functions such as shopping, sports or relaxing.

Program Like El Helicoide, this building is an infrastructure. Different commercial functions combined with cultural centers are centralized in one complex. El Helicoide was a symbol of the economical growth of its era. The design in Tempelhof also tries to meet the requirements of the contemporary Berlin.

It combines commercial and cultural activities, as well as housing. The main point of the Tempelhof project is to create spaces that are accessible to everyone that is visiting Tempelhof and to allow the pioneers who occupied the airport to extend their activities through the hole year. This is achieved by the creation of very open and structurally simple spaces. These allow different functions to be realised inside the building and different activities to co-exist. Another aspect transferred of the project of El Helicoide is the idea that the rent payed for the space of shops and galleries is used to pay for the maintenance of the complex, a similar situation of the process that was intended to happen in Helicoide.

Identity With its huge scale El Helicode intended to be a mark of Caracas. By locating the proposed project in Tempelhof - a see of emptiness - it also means the creation of a icon. The first point that create the identity of the Venezuelan project is its size compared to the urban fabric. Considering the buildings around the Tempelhof park and the lack of urban fabric of the airport itself, the scale of the Sozialpalast Tempelhof is also massive. The remarkable element of the ramps present in El Helicoide are also important to the Berlin project. The disposal of the paths is used in this project as a way to connect it to the surrounding area - the same situation observed in El Helicoide. The third fact would be that the Venezuelan project actually works as an infrastructure to the city. This is also present in Tempelhof, through the choice of its functions and connections to the city.

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DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS WITH DIFFERENT HEIGHTS

El Helicoide year of realization –

1956 - 1982

program shops, restaurants – roads / green areas – exhibition area –

RAMPS

TOPOGRAPHY

CITY SKYLINE

46 715 sqm 29192 sqm 8445 sqm

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VIEWS

PATHS

TEMPELHOF S-BAHN

9370 sqm 4800 sqm 5500 sqm 4630 sqm 2390 sqm 185 units

TEMPELHOF

CITY ROAD

sports

commercial

technical

nature

city

parking

movement

activities

fast access

one-way

stops

changing to bike

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program flexible open plan – squares – roads –

cultural - commercial - apartments -

HIKING PATH

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Sozialpalast Tempelhof

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COM MU CEN NITY TER

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REST AUR A

LIBR

LIBRARY

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public space RESTAURANTS

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COMMUNITY CENTER

COMMERCIAL

M CO

HOUSING

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city road

cit roady

Tempelhof

RESTAURANTS

PLAYGROUND FITNESS

PUBLIC SPACE

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APARTMENTS

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PUBLIC SPACE

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Tempelhof Path

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GALLERY

PUBLIC SPACE

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CIA MER COM PACE S

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LIBRARY

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IUN MM TER CO CEN TY APARTMENTS

RES TAU R

City Road

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city tempelhof alex skyline

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identity transfer

Commercial

s-bahn

LANDSCAPE

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city road

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different ramps functions with different heights

PROGRAM

path

path

Cultural

Ramps

road

city tempelhof alex skyline

VIEWS

identity transfer

s-bahn

LANDSCAPE functions with different heights

hiking tempelhof city path path road

PATHS

city tempelhof alex skyline

VIEWS

identity transfer

s-ba

LANDSCAPE

BUILDING AS

City Road

Hiking Path

Hiking Path

Tempelhof

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Inside View

Commercial

Housing Cultural Ramps

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EL HELICOIDE

CARACAS

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Sozialpalast

Tempelhof

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18 M 1/10000

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PR OJ EC T

Groundfloor M 1/1000

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PR OJ EC T

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RO JE CT

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PR OJ EC T

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1st floor M 1/1000

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PR OJ EC T

Section AA‘ M 1/1000

Section BB‘ M 1/1000

North Elevation M 1/1000

South Elevation M 1/1000

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PR OJ EC T

2nd floor M 1/1000

HIKING PATH 18

3rd floor M 1/1000

4th floor M 1/1000

S-BAHN

M 1/10000

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G HI T EC OJ PR

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PR OJ EC T

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IMAGE CREDITS p.06/FIG 11: copyright by Nicola Rocco p.06/FIG 12: copyright by Jackie, in: A. Bornhorst, Dirk. „El Helicoide“ Oscar Todtmann Editores, Caracas, 2007. p.08/FIG 13: in arteyarquitectura.wordpress.com p.08/FIG 14: copyright by Jackie, in: A. Bornhorst, Dirk. „El Helicoide“ Oscar Todtmann Editores, Caracas, 2007. p.08/FIG 15: in cav.org.ve

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