This article was taken from the May 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
This is Centro Financiero Confinanzas, an abandoned 45-storey skyscraper in Caracas, Venezuela. Built in the mid-90s but never completed after the death of its developer, David Brillembourg, in 1993, the tower is now occupied by around 3,000 squatters. "It's the tallest squat we know of," says London-based design critic Justin McGuirk, who curated an exhibition on the tower for last year's Venice Architecture Biennale. Working with Venezuelan design group Urban Think Tank (U-TT), he explored how the building has been repurposed. "Why should the poor be forced to live in slums on the perimeter of a city, when there are derelict skyscrapers in its centre?" he says.
U-TT is now developing proposals with residents to make the space more sustainable and comfortable, such as installing wind turbines, water pumps and a replacement for the lifts that were never installed. But with the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez in March, the squatters' situation is precarious. "They had the tacit approval of Chávez," says McGuirk. "But they never had legal status there."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
