Torre David, a 45-story office tower in Caracas, was almost complete when it was abandoned following the death of its developer and collapse of the Venezuelan economy. Today, it is the improvised home of more than 750 families, living in an extra-legal occupation that some call a vertical slum.

Rapidly expanding megacities are a global phenomenon and as a consequence millions of people today live in makeshift constructs they call their homes. Venezuela is Latin America’s most urbanized country, and in the capital Caracas ”informal” cities grow at a dangerous speed up along the ridges of the city. High crime rates and bad sanitary conditions are only some of the problems here. These problems are seen from the point of view of architects and designers in this documentary, which shows inspirational examples of possibilities born when when visions meet reality. The film documents parts of the experimental project called Urban Think Tank, which has substituted drawing board studies with creating solutions in dialogue with the street level. ”In future city planning one has to free oneself from the toolbox of the past” is the architects’ answer to the issues of urbanisation.