DDN
This work originated with an anecdote: Arthur Kahn went to an interview to offer his services as an architect to Luis Roche, who directed and promoted new developments in east Caracas. Roche mentioned how expendable he thought architects were: «We are not architects, but we have very good architecture books». To which Kahn aptly responded: «Dear Mr. Roche: thanks for your hospitality, and if you are ever ill, call me, please; I am not a doctor, but I have very good medicine books». The following day Roche gave Kahn the Altamira Building project. Its archi-tecture is closely related to the urban layout of Altamira, where the building is inserted facing Plaza Francia (formerly Plaza Altamira), which is designed on a symmetrical axis reinforced by two streets, with its centrality reinforced by an obelisk, conditions which the building assimilates in its shape. The building’s floor plan breaks symmetrically at the axis that comes from the plaza and is developed as a low seven-level volume. These condi-tions build ideal visual relationships with the obelisk, making this space a constant city postcard. In Altamira Building, urban design and architecture are a single project, an emblematic image of Caracas, present in its memory, and witness to how Arthur Kahn demonstrated the value and relevance of this discipline.
