Architect and university teacher / Venezuela
Julio Volante
Argentine-born architect in Caracas, known for the UCAB classroom building and Bello Monte shell.Born 1920The architect
Julio Volante
Julio César Volante was born in Tucumán, Argentina, and trained as an architect at the University of Buenos Aires. He settled in Venezuela, where he designed public and institutional buildings from the 1950s onward and later revalidated his degree at the Central University of Venezuela (class 16, 1967).
He is best remembered in Caracas for the open-air Concha Acústica in Bello Monte (1954) and for the Edificio de Aulas at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, nicknamed “La Colmena” for its honeycomb-like façade. He also taught architectural composition and studio courses at the UCV, and in 2023 the UCAB School of Architecture created a student prize in his name.
- Born
- 1920, Tucumán, Argentina
- Studied
- Architecture, University of Buenos Aires; degree revalidated at the UCV in 1967
- Key period
- 1950s to 1980s, Caracas
- Teaching
- Architectural composition and studio leadership, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, UCV
- Recognition
- Julio Volante Prize for student excellence, UCAB School of Architecture (since 2023)
Selected works
Buildings to know.
Photo: Guillermo Ramos Flamerich (assumed author, per Commons), CC BY 2.5
1954 · Bello Monte, Caracas
Concha Acústica de Bello Monte
An open-air acoustic shell and amphitheatre built on land donated to the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela. It opened on 19 March 1954 and remains a concert venue.
Photo: JoseGre12, CC BY-SA 4.0
1964–1965 · Montalbán, Caracas
Edificio de Aulas, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello
A five-story reinforced-concrete classroom building for the university’s new campus, with a hexagonal pattern on its façade that earned it the name “La Colmena”. Construction began in 1964 and the first modules opened in 1965.
Photo: william piña, CC BY-SA 3.0
1989 · Los Palos Grandes, Caracas
Commercial annex to the Edificio Mene Grande
A four-story commercial block added on the south side of the 1966 Mene Grande office building, using concrete and coloured glass panels. It leaves an open space around a century-old mijao tree.
Image credits
- Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.jpg, by JoseGre12, CC BY-SA 4.0. View on Wikimedia Commons
- Concha Acústica of Bello Monte 2.jpg, by Guillermo Ramos Flamerich (assumed author, per Commons), CC BY 2.5. View on Wikimedia Commons
- Edificio. Mene Grande a la Entrada de la Av. La Floresta - panoramio.jpg, by william piña, CC BY-SA 3.0. View on Wikimedia Commons
Sources
This profile is compiled from public sources and written in our own words.