Argentina

Do or RedoFifty years later, a house no longer meets the demand for which it was created. If, then, we must choose between transforming an existing suburban house or building a new one, there is an ethical question that surpasses the merely economic equation. As architects we must rethink the impact that generates replacing a piece where it can be refunctionalized. And that decision comes prior to the project.Having then made the decision to readapt a construction, the search was oriented towards a structure that was as basic as possible, which would allow a certain freedom for a programmatic readjustment. An existing house was then chosen, made up of a pure brick volume with a gable roof, with a 9 x 9 square geometric plan, and two adjacen... More

Carrying out a commission for a Social Institution reconsiders the role of the architect, since the client represents a group of people who give him power to ensure services for the community. Javier Agustin Rojas Javier Agustin Rojas Flexibility, flexibility, flexibilityWhen the project began, there was only one certainty: that when the building was finished, the program would already have changed. The institution was in the process of growing, and that was a fact. It was then decided to work with a free-plan structural scheme until reaching a system of porticos between party walls with high-rise beams. Releasing the width of the plan, the depth of the scheme remained to be resolved, for which a strategy of sequencing spaces fro... More

The House at El Alfalfar is an architectural structure consisting of three levels, located on a rectangular site with great views of a golf field at it's back. The project is organized into three volumes stacked on top of each other. The first one is a reinforced concrete box half-buried underground, above it a semi-transparent wooden box, and on top of all a white box containing the bedrooms. These volumes have a specific function and are designed to create a balance between functionality and aesthetics. Albano García Albano García Albano García Albano García The project features balconies and eaves that provide shade in the summer and frame the best views throughout the year. A travertine m... More

Part of the air.CMMY is situated near the western edge of Pinamar city on a street that ends in a Cul de Sac, away from the sea and downtown. The house was built on an irregular shaped lot that presented a steep slope on the front and back, bordering a forest that will be plotted sometime in the future. The commission constrained the design as the clients wanted a modern and warm house with a gable roof –a demand that was at first interpreted as a large shed. From the outside, CMMY stands as a rigid single volume with recesses and folds. On the inside, however, the typology is completely decomposed to generate spaces which articulate through the air; it is precisely this vacuum (the air) the one in charge of linking the living spaces... More

The Argentinean edition of Hello Wood international summer festival for architecture has ended. The Budapest-based studio – which has attracted the attention of such legendary architects in the last few years as Urban Think-Tank from Zürich or Kengo Kuma from Japan – can proudly say that one of Europe’s leading architectural summer universities has become an export, along with their teaching methods. For 4 years now, the Argentinian partners, the MANDARINA design agency and TACADI architecture studio (Bea Palacio, Mercedes Palacio, Jerónimo Fanelli, Marcos Llerena) organize Hello Wood Argentina, following the Hungarian model. “We are proud to be able to spread our knowledge, experience and inspiration in... More

“Paseo Aldrey – Cultural & Shopping Centre” is a major project to transform a former bus station in the city of Mar de Plata (Argentina) into a cultural and leisure centre while also restoring and placing new value on this item of heritage.   Architects’ studio Mariani-Pérez Maraviglia was responsible for the redevelopment of this 42,000m2 area for the city’s inhabitants.   With this project, headed by architect Laura Napp, a whole new facelift was given to the area through the construction of a new linear-looking building that integrates the old bus station’s classical architecture (designed by architect Jules Dormal in around 1910) into its big volumes.   This redeveloped... More

A building at the back of an existing house and the re-functionalization of the own dwelling were the main issues of this project. Some basic operations define the search for a connection between the original building and the new one. A growing family, a change of uses and a fondness for gastronomy define the new program. The social area of the original house is projected by modifying the kitchen, storage and counter areas and secluding the play area in the interior. A small addition is used as a link between the pre-existing and the new in a search for a common language that does not look for adaptation or reproduction. At the back of the lot and amid aged trees, an isolated building is placed. This shelter works as a sewing room, photogra... More

The lot situated in the coastal town of Cariló presented a depression in its centre and some pine trees on the rear façade. Twoof the main requirements were: ensuring the users’ privacy –as the house is set on a busy street- and no level changes.The dwelling stands as an autonomous artifactin a beach town with no clear architectural identity and which strictly respects setbacks, vegetation and natural topography. The house creates its own world as it closes in itself: a one-level-rectangular prism with three subtractions in the shape of patios that add ventilated perimeter and create transitional spaces between the interior and exterior. These spaces can be closed at the outer edge with roll down shutters, creating two different perimeters;... More

Located in a decisive natural environment, a wooded area for decades, this corporate office campus project seeks to integrate with the landscape proposing soft, curved and winding forms that let the sun and air pass between its buildings.The set of 3 oval buildings is joined on the ground floor by a slab that acts as a continuous base and gives unity to the whole. Allowing to go between buildings under cover through a continuous commercial recove.The elliptical geometries allow panoptic visuals on an environment of closed neighborhoods, trees and villas, all of lower height than the buildings of 18.50m.The concept of the proposal, create between trees, seeks to activate the senses all the time in relation to nature. Thus, a number... More

The property is located in La Caleta, a coastal town 25 kilometers at the north of the city of Mar del Plata.The premise was to take advantage of a privileged environment, so the visual becomes the main objective of the project. Analyzing how the landscape is perceived from the house and how it is viewed from the outside, is one of the requirements defined by the firm.In order to meet the needs of a young family that was going to grow, the house was designed to be built in two stages: The first stage (ground floor) could operate independently during the time of construction of the second stage (first floor) From these premises housing is formed by two overlapping rectangular prisms, creating an "L" type, which maximizes the green lands... More

DESCRIPTIVE MEMORY...Villa del Parque... The green of trees.... Low houses ... A quiet neighborhood... The building develops into a free ground floor, a single space, from where it is possible to appreciate the visual continuity of the typical park of a building which is connected to the city.A concrete box contains folded brick walls in the manner of “ribbons”, as if they were a “hand” that grabs the building.Within the park – a lot of 17, 32 metres in the front by 53 metres in depth, the access is achieved through a dry square sorrounded by 2 patios as block interiors, from where a glazed hall – volume with gardens and water fountains around it allow the access to the semi private area of the building.The arrival to each dwelling uni... More

DESCRIPTIVE MEMORY On the basis of two chorizo houses (sausage – houses, a typical sort of building from buenos aires) with commercial stores in the front from 1900, which belonged to cándido boschini (one of the first inhabitants in the neighborhood), it was projected to recycle this set of 6 functional units, an urban piece that coexists with the old trees and the quietness of villa devoto neighborhood. The language of the buildings from the past was thoroughly respected in such a way that the intervention of modernity brings it back to the present time…  Cedar carpentry, glass partitions with color spreads, latticework, ribbed metal curtains from old stores, wide brick walls, pinotea, etc. were set in value... More

DESCRIPTIVE MEMORYThe building opens to the city... It may be observed from the railway station… Its cutout can be seen as one approaches it from The park and gets immersed into the grove of the seminary…The facades multiply... The building appears just as it is, without hiding its noble materials and simplicity, which make it to look strong and unique…Due to the closeness with the railway station, the Villa Devoto seminary and the nearby greenhouse, the building appears as being “liberated” thanks to the distension generated by the open spaces with trees.The presence of the centenary tipa trees along the seminary sidewalk, with their particular height, foliage and yellow flowers, embraces the building and ... More