In 2013, Urban-Think Tank was invited to exhibit in the CoalMine Gallery, located in Winterthur, Switzerland. The exhibition displayed a brand new video installation titled, “Gran Horizonte: Around the Day in 80 Worlds,” a 33-minute, three-channel piece made from an assemblage of U-TT Film’s media archive. Depicting a typical day across the urban world, the video was shown in conjunction with a photo installation made while producing the project. The film was produced by Alfredo Brillembourg &#x26; Hubert Klumpner, directed by Daniel Schwartz and Martin Andersson, and made with the support of the Georg und Bertha Schwyzer-Winiker-Stiftung.
In conjunction, U-TT displayed a new version of its Torre David research, documentary, and design project with photographs by Iwan Baan and videos by Daniel Schwartz and Markus Kneer.

COALMINE Gallery

Gran Horizonte & Torre David

Exhibitions

Torre David, a 45-story office tower in Caracas designed by the distinguished Venezuelan architect Enrique Gómez, was almost complete when it was abandoned following the death of its developer, David Brillembourg, in 1993 and 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.
Urban-Think Tank at ETH Zürich, spent a year studying the physical and social organization of this ruin-turned-home. Where some only see a failed development project, U-TT has conceived it as a laboratory for the study of the informal. In this exhibit and in their book, Torre David: Informal Vertical Communities, the architects exhibited their vision for practical, sustainable interventions in Torre David and similar informal settlements around the world. They argue that the future of urban development lies in collaboration among architects, private enterprise, and the global population of slum-dwellers. The collective issued a call to arms to their fellow architects to see in the informal settlements of the world a potential for innovation and experimentation, with the goal of putting design in the service of a more equitable and sustainable future.
In the spirit of the Biennale’s theme, Common Ground, the installation took the form of a Venezuelan arepa restaurant, creating a genuinely social space rather than a didactic exhibition space. The residents of Torre David have similarly created a variety of common grounds—for sports, leisure, worship, and meetings—that reinforce the cohesive nature of this settlement. Even before its opening, this installation inspired intense debate in the Venezuelan architectural community. Many were dismayed that the nation’s architectural accomplishments are “represented” by a never-completed and “ruined” work; others argue that the exhibit condones the Venezuelan government’s tacit and explicit support of illegal seizure and occupation of property. In fact, none of these positions reflected the true nature and purpose of the exhibit. It, and its creators, avoid taking political sides, arguing that Torre David represents not Venezuelan architecture but rather an experiment in informal/formal hybridity and a critical moment in the global phenomenon of informal living. With the aim of developing the debate over Torre David and similar sites in other cities, the installation included many of the letters and newspaper articles that have appeared in response to the announcement of the exhibition.
The exhibition was awarded the Golden Lion for best non-national pavilion, and inspired numerous other exhibitions on the project around the world. The Golden Lion itself was eventually presented and given to the residents of Torre David.
Selected Press Coverage
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/arts/design/13th-venice-architecture-biennale-the-usual-hagiography.html">“Projects Without Architects Steal the Show,” New York Times, 2012</a>
<a href="http://www.architectmagazine.com/design/caracas-torre-david-at-the-venice-biennale_o">“Caracas’ Torre David at the Venice Biennale,” Architect Magazine, 2012</a>
<a href="http://www.architectmagazine.com/design/caracas-torre-david-at-the-venice-biennale_o">“La Torre David fue reconocida con el León de Oro en Venecia,” El Universal, 2012</a>
<a href="https://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2012/08/30/torre-david-gran-horizonte.html">“Torre David/Gran Horizonte,” Domus, 2012</a>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/aug/29/venice-architecture-biennale">“Starchitects and squatters: Venice Architecture Biennale,” The Guardian, 2012</a>

The Venice Architecture Biennale

Torre David: Gran Horizonte

Holy contract explores alternative forms of collaboration through the research, conception, design and production of genre-defying performance. By challenging the relationship between art and architecture through the creation of a theatrical project-event.
Urban-Think Tank has been working for the past three years within Cape Town’s informal settlements, and this production is a result of real stories that have emerged through interactions with residents. We approach theater as an alternative means of making and activating city spaces. The script was written during a series of workshops run with the actors in Khayelitsha. Scott-Heron’s work, which often built upon parallels between racial oppression in the United States and South Africa’s Apartheid regime, played a key role during the project’s inception, with existing lyrical content informing and inspiring the creation of new material.
A collaboration with Theatre4Change, a non-profit group based in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, Holy Contract is an independent and experimental theater production. Founded by actor, presenter, writer, and director, Mandisi Sindo (aka Dr Disi), the organization aims to make theater accessible to a diverse audience, while prioritizing the empowerment of actors living in Khayelitsha by bridging the gap between mainstream theater and talent in the townships. Inspired by the late poet and musician, Gil Scott-Heron, Holy Contract is set against the backdrop of South Africa’s contemporary urban challenges, tackling themes around social justice and identity politics. Dialogue switches between Xhosa and English.
The production debuted at Makukhanye (meaning ‘let there be light’) Art Room, a ‘shack theater’ in Khayelitsha. Performances are also scheduled at two additional venues as part of the 2016 Cape Town Fringe Festival — Guga S’Thebe in Langa, and City Hall. The play is conceived in part as a form of artistic activism, intended as the first step towards building a new theater for the community. Learning from the Empower Shack project, research into the existing urban arrangement and planned redevelopment of the neighboring Site B Market Stalls will be conducted. Thando Mpengezi, founder of Makukhanye Art Room and recently elected council member, is in full support of the proposal. Andrew Todd, who worked on the Young Vic theater in London, will join the design team and a link to Theatrum Mundi is planned.

Holy Contract at the Cape Town Fringe Festival

Can art and architecture lend a voice to segments of the population that go unheard? The Empower Shack exhibition at Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zürich, supported by Swisspearl, presented the ongoing collaboration between U-TT, South African NGO Ikhayalami (‘My Home’), Transsolar, Brillembourg Ochoa Foundation, Meyer Burger, the BLOCK ETH ITA Research Group, and video company. The Empower Shack team was established as a response to conventional approaches in dealing with urban informality, which are unsustainable and painstakingly slow in meeting the immediate needs of the vast majority of South Africa’s urban poor. With its roots in a research, design, and build workshop aimed at developing an innovative, replicable, affordable and sustainable shack prototype for Cape Town’s Khayelitsha (the third largest township in South Africa), the exhibition used film, photography, drawings, painting, and large-scale architectural installations to explore the complexity of living conditions in informal settlements, and the social role of architects in helping to address the economic, ecological and security challenges faced by residents.
Press Coverage:
<a href="http://urban-think%20tank%20develops%20housing%20prototype%20for%20south%20african%20slums/">“Urban-Think Tank Develops Housing Prototype for South African Slums,” Dezeen, 2014</a>
<a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/switzerland/Global/switzerland/publications/Greenpeace/Magazin/2014/1403%20Magazin/1410_GP_MAG_3-14_Urbaner_Wildwuchs.pdf">“Die Chancen des Urbanen Wildwuchses” Greenpeace Magazine, 2014</a>
<a href="https://www.designboom.com/architecture/urban-think-tank-empowershack-slums-western-cape-382014/">“urban think tank introduces the empower shack to the slums of western cape,” DesignBoom, 2014</a>

Location	Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, Switzerland
Year	2014
Curators	Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner
Exhibition Coordinators	Scott Lloyd, Daniel Schwartz
Exhibition Team	Alexis Kalagas, Giulia Celentano, Hans Rufer, Ilaria Riscassi, Marcel Aubert
Handpainted Typography	Lea Becker
Collaborators	Natalya Critchley, Martin Andersson, Adam Walker
Support	Swisspearl, ETH Zürich D-ARCH, Zumtobel, Meyer Burger