The+purposes+of+architecture+and+urban+planning

The purposes of architecture and urban planning
Urban Planning and Architecture share a purpose, the purpose of designing space. Architects design buildings, physical structures and even furniture. On the other hand, urban planners design urban or city spaces. These two types of design have a main difference: scale. Architects design at a micro level and urban planners design at a macro level. Both designs are aimed towards people, but not towards the same amount of people. In the case of the architect, the design focuses on the needs, interests and tastes of a person; whereas the urban planner designs for many people with different tastes, but common interests, since they design public spaces. Through their design, architects intend to give an identity, distinction, hierarchy and order to their building. Just like architects, urban planners intend to do the same but in the city. Architecture and urban planning are both professions that work spaces at different scales, but they actually complement each other because, when designing a building, the architect shouldn´t forget that a building is not an island, he has to take its environment into account, the urban context. Just like architects, urban planners shouldn´t forget the buildings’ design when they are designing an urban project.

In Caracas, architecture has more protagonism than urban planning, since the second one is more recent and the concept of “urban planning” is not very well known. Architecture has been used for more time and it has accomplished its purposes; in opposition, urban planning has been used for very little time and its results are accomplished in a longer period of time.