Sitting on give of a pocket-size natural loma , amidst the slums of San Agustín , inward south-central Caracas , Venezuela , is a magnificent edifice alongside a spiraling ramp that coils onto itself becoming tighter as well as tighter , ascent higher as well as higher , until it reaches the apex crowned past times a geodesic dome , designed past times none other than Richard Buckminster Fuller himself.
El Helicoide , or the Helix , is i of Venezuela’s most of import relics of the modernist movement. It was supposed to hold upward the world’s kickoff drive-through shopping mall alongside a 2.5 mile long spiraling ramp for cars to ascend , descend , as well as commons direct inward front end of the shops they wanted to visit. There was infinite for to a greater extent than than 3 hundred stores , as well as would receive got included a five star hotel , a moving painting identify alongside vii screens , exhibition halls , a gym , a puddle , a bowling alley , a plant nursery as well as a lot more.
Photo credit: Projecto Helicoide
The projection was conceived inward the belatedly 1950s past times architects Pedro Neuberger , Dirk Bornhorst as well as Jorge Romero Gutiérrez , for the Venezuelan dictator as well as President Marcos Perez Jimenez. When the projection was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art inward New York , it was hailed past times everyone equally a triumph of modernist design. Nobel-Prize winning Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda declared it "one of the most exquisite creations to emerge from the heed of an architect" , as well as Salvador Dalí offered to decorate the inside.
The edifice was nearly nearing completion when Pérez Jiménez’s dictatorship collapsed as well as the architects lost their funding. The novel authorities showed no involvement inward completing the projection because of its association alongside the onetime dictator. In 1961 , i yr earlier the projection was due for completion , structure came to a halt. In 1975 , after a lengthy bankruptcy procedure , the edifice became authorities property.
The kickoff squatters began to deed inward in 1979. They were to a greater extent than frequently than non victims of a recent landslide. But inward simply 3 years , the issue of people illegally occupying the edifice rose to to a greater extent than than 10 G , as well as the Helicoide became a den for trafficking inward drugs as well as sex. In 1982 , the squatters were evicted , as well as it was decided to plow the edifice into a Museum of History as well as Anthropology. This , of course of teaching , never happened. Instead , the edifice was taken over past times the Venezuelan intelligence constabulary inward 1984 as well as turned into their headquarters. The building’s innumerable rooms , originally designed to display as well as sell products , became cells to concur detainees for questioning , torturing as well as more.
“A novel sort of darkness laid upon the edifice , arising from its conversion into a detention middle ,” writes cultural historian Celeste Olalquiaga. “High-tech surveillance equipment was installed , officers delighted to hold upward able to ride their cars to their offices à la James Bond. There were political prisoners , at that topographic point was torture; SWAT teams would halt anyone taking a painting of the edifice from the surrounding highways.”
Vicente Lecuna , a professor at Central Venezuela University , calls the identify a contradiction—”a infinite that wanted to hold upward a symbol of gratuitous commerce inward the Fifties as well as Sixties would after buy the farm a jail , a jail for political prisoners.”
According to a study published past times an NGO , at that topographic point were 145 cases of torture as well as vicious , inhuman , as well as degrading handling , committed past times the Venezuelan Government from Jan 2014 to June 2016 alone.
In 2012 , the Inter-American Court on Human Rights examined the facilities at the Helicoide as well as concluded they were non represent to hold upward a prison. Nevertheless , the Helicoide continues to concur prisoners as well as the only escapees from it are stories of horror as well as human rights violation.
Photo credit: Juan Carlos Montes/Panoramio
Photo credit: Projecto Helicoide
Photo credit: Projecto Helicoide
Photo credit: Projecto Helicoide
Photo credit: Projecto Helicoide
Photo credit: Projecto Helicoide
Photo credit: Projecto Helicoide
Photo credit: Projecto Helicoide
Sources: CityLab / World Architects / Failed Architecture