{"id":10925,"date":"2014-10-04T15:16:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T13:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/torre-david-2\/"},"modified":"2015-06-29T18:43:11","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T16:43:11","slug":"torre-david","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/torre-david\/","title":{"rendered":"Torre David"},"content":{"rendered":"

Torre David, a 45-story office tower in Caracas designed by the distinguished Venezuelan architect Enrique G\u00f3mez, was almost complete when it was abandoned following the collapse of the Venezuelan economy in 1994. Today, it is the improvised home of a community of more than 750 families, living in an extra-legal and tenuous occupation that some have called a vertical slum.
\nAlfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner, along with their research and design teams at Urban-Think Tank and ETH Z\u00fcrich, spent a year studying the physical and social organization of this ruin-turned-home. Where some only see a failed development\u00a0project, U-TT has conceived it as a laboratory for the study of the informal. With the\u00a0support of the Schindler Group, U-TT also explored innovative design solutions to\u00a0address new modes of vertical mobility.
\nThey argue that the future of urban development lies in collaboration among architects, private enterprise, and the global population of slum-dwellers. Brillembourg and Klumpner issue a call to arms to their fellow architects to see in the informal settlements of the world a potential for innovation\u00a0and experimentation, with the goal of putting design in the service of a more equitable\u00a0and sustainable future.<\/p>\n