Residents of Torre de David to be Evacuated

Evacuation of Torre de David, the world’s largest slum began now that Chinese investors have purchased the building to develop a financial sector. Recognizable from appearances on Homeland, this 45-storey abandoned skyscraper in Venezuela was home to over 3,000 squatters for longer than seven years.

Photo via MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/EPA

Though Venezuelan officials have not commented on what will happen to the skyscraper, they told reporters that the building was declared unsafe for habitation. Without running water, functional electricity or completed railings and walls, photographs of the apartments are enough to illustrate the real level of danger, but residents had developed a community here that is impressively intricate and probably irreplaceable. Initially built to be the headquarters of the Confinanzas Group, the project was abandoned in 1994 after the death of the main investor, David Brillembourg. The company went bankrupt and the country was affected with financial crisis. Since 2000, the building was slowly taken over by squatters who worked together to set up houses and shops in the place of what was going to be offices. With floor managers and resident run bars, stores and locales providing goods and services, it’s difficult to imagine the building being used for anything else.

Photo via MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/EPA

The “peaceful” first phase of the evacuation involves relocating the inhabitants to available public housing in a town just south of the city, called Cua. Due to the magnitude of the building and number of residents, the building has received enormous amounts of attention from the media and sociologists worldwide. Architecture photographer for the New York Magazine, Iwan Baan published a photo essay on it last year, illustrating the complex community that has developed in response to the housing shortage in the region (residents have found ways to rig an electricity grid and even implement a security system that allows access only to people who live there). Other essays explore the skyscraper as a symbol of global devastation in the wake of the financial crisis.

In accordance to the relocation plan, the evacuation will move one floor out at a time. With 28 inhabited floors, we can expect that it will be a long time before Chinese investors have the ability to develop anything here; assuming peaceful evacuation is successful.

Feature image: FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES