Architecture’s Finest: Hipódromo La Rinconda in Caracas, built in the 50s and still one of the most attention grabbing racecourses in the world

Bursting with Le Corbusier inspired colour, built, at the time, with ground-breaking technology, designed by the American architect Arthur Froehlich, Caracas’s Hipódromo La Rinconda, a masterpiece of Modernist architecture of the 1950s, still has the ‘wow’ factor.

Froehlich, one of the world’s most influential racecourse designers was fascinated by the places of consumption and over the years has developed interesting theories on relationships between consumers and architecture that he applied on his designs. In her article for World of Interiors (1/2009) about Froehlich and the Hipódromo La Rinconda, the writer Patricia Koch cites the architect’s views on the psychology of designing a racecourse. ‘You might think that all people care about when they go to a track is placing a bet and watching the horses run. Our studies show that at most tracks the stands provide seats for only half the people. This suggests that people spend at least part of their time doing other things. Furthermore, most of the people present aren’t winning money; they’re losing it. Our job is to keep them happy while losing. At a perfectly designed track, a customer could lose his shirt betting on horses in a blinding snowstorm and still hurry back the next day.’

Hipódromo La Rinconda opened in 1959 (it took 6 years and cost $30 million to built) and became a model racecourse; it’s system of stands eventually being applied to Ascot, Belmont Park and Longchamp. It also became what Froehlich dreamt it up to be; a social space and not just a racecourse, a place for people to bet, entertain themselves, or just be seen at. Win, lose or pose but stay happy while you are there and keep coming back, for years and generations to come.

Photography by Antoine Baralhe