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Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk win best project at Venice Architecture Biennale

Justin McGuirk, Urban-Think Tank and Iwan Baan win best project at Venice Architecture Biennale

Dezeen Wire: architecture critic Justin McGuirk (pictured above, holding the award), photographer Iwan Bann and the Urban-Think Tank team of Venezuela (also pictured above) have won the Golden Lion for best project at the Venice Architecture Biennale for their Torre David/Gran Horizonte installation and cafe.

Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk win best project at Venice Architecture Biennale

The project documents the Torre David vertical slum in Caracas, the 45-storey concrete frame of a corporate office building that was never completed and is now inhabited by people who would otherwise live in the city's slums.

Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk win best project at Venice Architecture Biennale

Photographs by Iwan Baan record the culture that's grown up there while the pop-up Venezuelan restaurant, called Gran Horizonte, brings a taste of public life in Caracas to the Arsenale exhibition.

Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk win best project at Venice Architecture Biennale

"This exhibit believes that sharing a meal is the best way to establish common ground for a discussion," says Urban-Think Tank in relation to biennale director David Chipperfield's theme (discussed in our interview here).

Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk win best project at Venice Architecture Biennale

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Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk win best project at Venice Architecture Biennale