Archinect - News

"Latin America is where modernist Utopia went to die." – A closer look at the changing urban landscape of Caracas

2015-11-25T17:24:00-05:00

‘El mejor anuncio de la historia’, or ‘the best ad in history’ is a picture taken in February 2008, which neatly encapsulates several aspects of the city’s urban landscape: the formal, the informal and the promotional. '[...]Around and in between the super bloques a carpet of slums has grown, an organism that now seems to bind the blocks together in some symbiotic relationship. These are the kind of hybrid forms that are developing in Latin American cities [...]’

Related in the Archinect news:

Without Housing Reform, is a "Tower of David" Coming to Your City?

2015-04-09T18:12:00-04:00

Justin McGuirk’s Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture should be required reading for anyone looking for ways out of the bleak social inequality we’re stuck in. There were 40 million more slum dwellers worldwide in 2012 than there were in 2010, according to the UN. Private markets clearly can’t provide universal housing in any way approaching efficiency, and governments are often hostile to the poor.

In his book, McGuirk analyzes numerous de facto housing solutions for overcrowded cities, including the infamous "Torre David" in Caracas, an abandoned high-rise which became an iconic squatter's structure partly because of government ineptitude and indifference.

Venezuelan Government Evicts Residents From World's Tallest Slum

2014-07-22T13:54:00-04:00

Venezuelan soldiers and officials began moving hundreds of families on Tuesday out of a half-built 45-story skyscraper that dominates the Caracas skyline and is thought to be the world's tallest slum. Residents from the "Tower of David” were going to new homes in the town of Cua, south of Caracas [...]. President Nicolas Maduro's government has not yet said what it will do with the tower, but one local newspaper reported Chinese banks were buying it to restore to its original purpose.

Previously:

The world's tallest slum: Rare look at an illegal ghetto in the sky

2013-08-27T15:00:00-04:00

Welcome to the world’s tallest slum: poverty-ridden Venezuela’s Tower of David. Squatters took over this very unfinished 45-story skyscraper in the early 1990s, and they’ve been there ever since. The tower was originally intended to be a symbol of Caracas’ bright financial future, complete with a rooftop helipad, but construction stopped because of a banking crisis and the sudden death of the tower’s namesake, David Brillembourg.

Anywhere but Here: Deserted Banking Empire turned Skyscraper Slum

2013-05-13T14:04:00-04:00

It was built for stockbrokers and bankers in their thousand dollar suits to make million dollar deals, but for nearly two decades it has held the less impressive title of the world’s tallest squat. Welcome to the Centro Financiero Confinanzas, more commonly known as the Torre David (the Tower of David) in Caracas, Venezuela, an unfinished skyscraper which has now been colonised by an ad hoc community of over 700 families.

Iwan Baan presents TORRE DAVID / GRAN HORIZONTE in Los Angeles

2012-09-28T15:30:00-04:00

It's no secret that we here at Archinect have long been great admirers of Dutch architectural photographer Iwan Baan. It goes without saying that we were very excited to meet the man personally when he stopped by in Los Angeles this week.

In front of a small group of invited guests at Hollywood's Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Baan presented photos of the installation "TORRE DAVID / GRAN HORIZONTE" he did with Urban Think Tank and Justin McGuirk for this year's Venice Architecture Exhibition "Common Ground" — and won the team the Golden Lion for the Best Project. The installation explores an informal and vertical community in an unfinished and abandoned skyscraper in Caracas, Venezuela (previously on Archinect).

Here is a small selection of Iwan Baan's photographic exploration for "TORRE DAVID / GRAN HORIZONTE". Click here for more photos.

Photo: Iwan Baan

Photo: Iw...

The Tower of David

2011-05-02T19:26:00-04:00

In the early '90s Caracas dreamed of a shimmering downtown financial centre—now it's the tallest squat in the world

Squatting in the Sky

2011-03-01T15:13:00-05:00

The future of cities is being lived in Caracas as 2,500+ squatter occupy an unfinished 45-story tower from the 1990s.

The squatters have jury-rigged utilities up to the 28th floor - but there isn't an elevator.

The future of cities is being lived in Caracas as 2,500+ squatter occupy an unfinished 45-story tower from the 1990s.

The squatters have jury-rigged utilities up to the 28th floor - but there isn't an elevator.

NYT - check out the video!