EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA SKETCHBOOK NO.76Torre David is an incomplete skyscraper in the center of the Venezuelan
capital Caracas that has been occupied and reconstructed by local
residents. Work on the building, named after the financial investor
David Brillembourg, who died in 1993, was suspended during the
Venezuelan financial crisis of 1994. After the office tower-- the third
highest in Venezuela--had stood empty for many years, it was taken over
by the local population in 2008. The occupants made the building their
own with improvisation and skill--it is a "vertical favela," now
containing not just housing but also other everyday facilities such as
an improvised doctor's office, shops, and more. Photographer Iwan Baan
has documented Torre David and its occupants, creating a portrait that
captures the contradictions of the place while at the same time
revealing urban structures that have emerged dynamically and without
planning. Alfredo Brillembou rg was born in New York in 1961. In 1993 he
founded Urban-Think Tank in Caracas, Venezuela. Since May 2010,
Brillembourg holds a chair in architecture and urban design at the Swiss
Institute of Technology, Zürich. Hubert Klumpne r was born in Salzburg
in 1965. In 1998 he joined Alfredo Brillembourg as director of
Urban-Think Tank in Caracas. Since 2010, Klumpner holds a chair in
architecture and urban design at the Swiss Institute of Technology,
Zürich. Iwan Baan , born in Alkmaar, Netherlands, in 1975, is an
architecture and documentary photographer. His photographs feature
regularly in such journals as Domus, A+U, The New Yorker, The New York
Times, and others. |
