Pages

Sunday, 13 April 2014

TOWER OF DAVID: THE WORLD’S TALLEST SLUM


New Picture 80
Tower of David, the World’s Tallest Slum
By Kaushik,
Amusing Planet, 7 April 2014.

The Tower of David is an abandoned unfinished skyscraper in the centre of Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, that is now home to more than 3,000 squatters, who have turned the 45-story skyscraper into the world’s tallest slum.

New Picture 81
Photo via theCHIVE.com

Construction of the building, originally called “Centro Financiero Confinanzas” and nicknamed the “Tower of David,” after its developer, David Brillembourg, was started in 1990 and was to become a symbol of Caracas’ bright financial future. It is the third highest skyscraper in the country. But a banking crisis brought those plans to an abrupt halt in 1994. The government took control over the building and construction was never completed. The building has no elevators, no installed electricity or running water, no balcony railing and windows and even walls in many places.

New Picture 57

In 2007, a group of squatters took over the building, and it quickly gained notoriety as a hotbed of crime and drugs. Despite this, residents have managed to build a comfortable and self sustaining community complete with basic utility services such as electricity and water that reaches all the way up to the 22nd floor. Lifts being absent, residents can use motorcycles to travel up and down the first 10 floors, but must use the stairs for the remaining levels. Inside the building’s long hallways there are warehouses, clothing stores, beauty parlours, a dentist and day-care centres. Some residents even have cars, parked inside of the building's parking garage. Some seven hundred families comprising over 3,000 residents live in the tower today.

New Picture 58

Residents claim that “Tower of David” is far more safer than anywhere else in Caracas. Many inside the Tower of David relocated from other, far more dangerous slums around the city like the violent Petare of east Caracas.

New Picture 59

There is a co-operative and floor delegates that help to manage the tower, and see that communal corridors are kept freshly-polished, and rules and rotas are adhered to. The residents pay US$32 a month “condominium” fee to pay for the tower’s 24-hour security patrols.

Also see: Kowloon Walled City, a Population Density Nightmare

New Picture 60

New Picture 61

New Picture 62

New Picture 63

New Picture 65

New Picture 64
New Picture 66
New Picture 67
New Picture 68
New Picture 69
New Picture 70
New Picture 71
New Picture 72
New Picture 73
New Picture 74
New Picture 75
New Picture 76
New Picture 77
New Picture 78
New Picture 79
Photos credit: Jorge Silva/Reuters / Jorge Silva/Reuters via IB Times

Article sources: Reuters / IB Times / Wikipedia

Video 1: The world's tallest slum: Caracas' notorious Tower of David


Video 2: Iwan Baan on “architecture without architects”


Top image: The Tower of David in Caracas, a vertical squatted neighbourhood of 750 families. Credit: Iwan Baan via Uncube.

[Post Source: Amusing Planet. Edited. Videos and some images/links added.]


No comments:

Post a Comment

Please adhere to proper blog etiquette when posting your comments. This blog owner will exercise his absolution discretion in allowing or rejecting any comments that are deemed seditious, defamatory, libelous, racist, vulgar, insulting, and other remarks that exhibit similar characteristics. If you insist on using anonymous comments, please write your name or other IDs at the end of your message.