Villanueva was born in London, he grew up and was educated in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and was acquainted with the contemporary artists of the Parisian Avant-garde. In 1929 he founded his own architectural office in Caracas, where he designed and realised many large buildings including the university campus in Caracas which consists of approximately 100 buildings; the lecture theatre with its curved white ceiling from which large colored tiles from Calder are suspended is particularly remarkable. In addition he designed the Olympic stadium and housing estates. Villanueva's architecture combines the radical style of Modernism with a dynamic and personal use of color and form. Concrete is much in evidence in his work and he lays great value on allowing the structural elements to become visible in expressive forms.