Torre de David // The Vertical Slums of Caracas
In our time of globalised capitalism, office towers are often designed as glittering testaments to design, innovation and the triumph of man. The same however cannot be said of Torre de David, an office tower conceived in the 1990s now better known as the world’s tallest vertical slum. The tower provides an intriguing example of how extremely poor people have had enough of oppression and are now making use of one of the “failures of capitalism” (Vocativ, 2013). Indeed, in a city where “70% of the Caracas residents live in slums” (Demilked, 2014), Torre de David offers these people a chance to live in their own designer affordable housing.
Commandeering the structure - Torre de David, Venezuela. (Demilked 2014).
An examination of the apartments reveals that people who have moved into Torre de David have been able to enjoy the many luxuries which we often take for granted: “…small homes out of painted cinder block…busy with everyday life: cooking, cleaning, carrying pails of water, taking showers. Music played here and there.” (Vocativ, 2013). Still others have been able to fashion livelihoods, establishing small food stores, music venues and even barber shops, transforming Torre de David from an abandoned concrete frame into a strong, close-knit community. One is therefore forced to ask, which alternative would be more sustainable?
No elevators. All 40 floors of this structure are accessible only by stairways. (Demilked, 2014).
Using anything they can find, including cardboard and newspaper, residents find innovative ways of partitioning their apartments. (Demilked, 2014).
Ideally speaking of course, one would say neither is sustainable. Simply abandoning half-complete structures as useless in the cityscape is just as unsustainable as forcing people into homes without adequate basic facilities. While we have indeed seen how innovative people can be in “transforming these ‘slums’ into a vertical city of micro-economies” (Demilked, 2014), others have not been as favourable in their critiques. Professor of Architectural Urbanism at the Central University of Venezuela, Guillermo Barrios has expressed how this sadly represents “…the urban policy of this [Hugo Chavez’s] regime…defined by confiscation, expropriation, governmental incapacity, and the use of violence.” (The New Yorker, 2013). He further points out that despite the strong sense of community, this represents ‘anti-housing’ and ‘anti-residence’ indicating that new and better solutions of housing must be sought. (Vocativ, 2013).
Opposing views. Professor of Architecture and Urbanism finds Torre de David as precepitating crime, but resident Daisy Monsalve feels that it is a suitable solution, given the lack of public housing in general (Vocativ, 2013).
What I feel personally Torre de David represents is human ingenuity, even when faced against the most dire and unfavourable circumstances. While the structure and its inhabitants are not necessarily an idealised architectural model for affordable housing solutions, their ability to adapt to their circumstances represents the kinds of flexibility we as educated designers should adopt to generate better, urban friendly and more sustainable solutions to meet the needs of housing.
References
Jon Lee Anderson. “Slumlord: What has Hugo Chavez wrought in Venezuela?”. (23 January 2013). Accessed online via:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/28/130128fa_fact_anderson#ixzz2IhVcDJwt
Demilked. “This Abandoned Office Tower In Caracas Is The World’s Largest Vertical Slum”. (11 April 2014). Accessed online via: http://www.demilked.com/tower-of-david-abandoned-skyscraper-caracas-iwan-baan/
Vocativ. “The world's tallest slum: Caracas' notorious Tower of David”. (1 August 2013). Accessed online via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1p9jlQUW0k#t=211