Centro Financiero Confinanzas

The Centro Financiero Confinanzas , also called Torre de David (German Tower of David ), is the third tallest building in Venezuela and is located in the capital Caracas .

history

The high-rise was built from 1990 on behalf of the investor David Brillembourg and was originally intended to serve as the headquarters of a major bank, office complex and hotel. The skyscraper , so far only partially completed, has 45 floors and is 192 meters high. Due to the financial crisis and the death of David Brillembourg in 1993, the work was stopped in 1994. The house was named after him "Torre de David".

After the death of the investor, the Venezuelan state took over the building. In October 2007, some residents from the poor areas of the city occupied the invest ruin. Little by little, more and more people populated the vacant floors and converted them into apartments and as craft workshops on their own initiative with provisional funds. Estimates from 2012 put around 2000 to 2500 illegal residents of the house, including members of the middle class, in order to avoid the high rents in Caracas. There were also a few small shops and cafes.

The building became internationally known through a study by the Venezuelan architects Urban Think Tank by Hubert Klumpner, Alfredo Brillembourg and Justin McGuirk. They accompanied the project over a longer period of time and presented it as a living model of the future in the metropolises of the emerging and developing countries . Thereby abandoned places are creatively occupied and put to a new use on their own initiative and self-administration ( squatting ). In 2012 they were awarded the "Golden Lion" for this project at the international architecture show Biennale di Venezia for the best contribution in the main exhibition.

The Venezuelan photographer Alejandro Cegarra has documented life in the Torre de David and the later resettlement of the residents in detail.

Eviction and considerations for further use

Due to the disastrous hygienic conditions and several accidents in which children fell into the unsecured stairwells, the authorities decided to evacuate the building. In July 2014, the first 160 of a total of 1156 families were relocated to residential complexes south of the city.

Afterwards it was considered that the National Guard, the fire brigade and the civil defense should use the building.

Damage from an earthquake

On August 22, 2018, the vacant high-rise was damaged by an earthquake . Parts of the top five storeys inclined 25 degrees downwards.

Trivia

The "Torre de David" was the location of an episode of the US television series Homeland . As a result, former soldier Nicholas Brody was held in the house by a gang and drugged. During the shooting, however, the Torre de David could only be seen from the outside, while the interior shots were taken in Puerto Rico for security reasons. In addition, the squatting is addressed in the documentary I Want To See The Manager .

literature

• Alfredo Brillembourg, Hubert Klumpner, Urban-Think Tank, ETH Zurich (eds.): Torre David. Informal vertical communities. Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-03778-298-9 (with many photos by Iwan Baan ).
• Alejandro Cegarra : The other side of the Torre de David. Ed .: Stadthaus Ulm. Ulm 2015, ISBN 978-3-934727-40-3 .
• Klaus Ehringfeld: Der Turm , in: Sächsische Zeitung , issue September 26, 2012, p. 3.
• Kristin Haug: "New ruin Torre de David: In the Tower of Evil", report on the photo series by Alejandro Cegarra . In: Spiegel Online , January 23, 2015.

See also

• Unfinished structures

Web links

Commons : Centro Financiero Confinanzas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The world's tallest slum: Caracas' notorious Tower of David on YouTube
• Urban think tank: short film "Torre David"
• Feature documentary: "Ruina"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Future model for the homeless? In: monopol - magazine for art and life, August 31, 2012.
2. ↑ Contribution to the award ceremony 2012. At: www.baunetz.de, accessed on September 26, 2012.
3. ↑ Venezuela clears the world's highest slum , in: Sächsische Zeitung of July 24, 2014, p. 4.
4. ↑ The highest slum in the world is cleared. In: ORF . July 23, 2014, accessed October 7, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Occupied skyscraper in Caracas building ruin becomes rescue center ( Memento from April 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
6. ↑ Tom Phillips: Venezuela hit by 7.3-magnitude earthquake. In: The Guardian . August 22, 2018, accessed on August 22, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Últimos pisos de la 'Torre de David' en Caracas quedan inclinados después del fuerte sismo. In: CNN en Español . August 21, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 (Spanish). 
8. ↑ Notorious biotope made of concrete , in: Sächsische Zeitung of April 23, 2015, p. 23.

Coordinates: 10 ° 30 '18.7 "  N , 66 ° 53' 55.7"  W.