The Madero Harbour complex is prominently located in the enclave of Puerto Madero, a territory where the city is reflected on the water and the natural world clashes with the artificial. The concept of margin, edge, boundary where the urban layout resulting from culture collides with the natural immensity of the river becomes the starting point of the project, which invites us to rethink architecture as a complex and stimulating contradiction due to the clash between opposites.

Hence the proposal: two spaces that embody the duality between, on the one hand, rationalist order (minimalism) and on the other, sensory exaltation (maximalism). The Miesian grid offers a conceptual framework: it organizes the floor plan through axial axes, affecting the rest of the elements that propose different usage situations.

The project then emerges as a territory of dualities and conflicts. It is a maximized minimalism, it is the contemporary and the modern; with straight, disjointed stone slabs and hyper-textured curves, a dynamic vegetation that is integrated, but at the same time static and framed. Its neutral tones balance the expressiveness of its materials, and its contradictions, ultimately, invite the provocation of an experience.

Every decision in this project was conceived under the same approach: we sought to create a botanical oasis located in the middle of urban chaos. This guiding line marked a north that determined each of the project definitions from the architectural space, through the choice of materials, equipment, graphic resources, and mainly landscape interventions.

Inspired by the old ‘green houses’ of late 19th century England, these large prefabricated steel and glass constructions that in the midst of the industrial revolution housed both the exuberance of the wild vegetation of the new continents and the gatherings of royalty, in AIRE LIBRE we seek to reflect this same duality in contemporary architectural language: the rusticity of a greenhouse together with the sophistication of the high cocktail bar. The old glass panes are now modulated translucent polycarbonate plates that form both interior and exterior facades, and the old steel structures are replaced by metal frames that modulate these facades.

In the same sense, the gastronomic proposal is also eclectic in its approach, classic but modern, made possible by combining a wood-fired kitchen with a large handmade clay oven, accompanied by a high-tech and technically complex kitchen, both of which are complementary and visible.

The project is developed over two floors, totalling more than 900m2 between indoors and outdoors. From an access foyer that acts as a reception, the spaces are articulated integrating open and closed, covered and uncovered areas, all of them always approached under the same conceptual treatment, from the material, lighting and biophilia strategies, generating as a result the indefinition between inside and outside.

The chromatic and material palette was always governed by the decision of nature and the nobility of its materials, both in interiors and exteriors. Textures of polished and hammered concrete, solid wood openings, added to stone cladding, granite crusts on the bar fronts, aged mirrors and the use of reclaimed wood planks, accompanied by the abundance of botanical plants in every corner of the premises, perfectly achieve the desired ambience.

This project could not be sustained without having resolved, in the first place, the high degree of maintenance required by the vegetation. A complex automated irrigation network was designed by a closed circuit of circulating fertilised water that works in conjunction with lighting equipment that is activated in counter-time with the use of the premises, to guarantee irrigation and photosynthesis in all the plants, both indoors and outdoors. To complete this system, a network of foggers was installed in all the outdoor spaces which, on particularly hot days, spray water droplets into the air, guaranteeing coolness and comfort for users.

The serenity of the spaces and materials, in contrast to the technical complexity of the project, resulted in spaces for meeting and enjoyment in the outdoor.

Unlike most gastronomic projects, in which the user is well defined beforehand, either by the age range, the gastronomic proposal, location and opening hours, or even by the value of the food. In this project none of these variables was predetermined. This is a space that is meant to be used for a premium gastronomic experience before the Arena’s shows, which means the user can change each night (depending on the show and the musical proposal).

There is a single variable in common to all of these users: the passion for music. From this arises the most important premise of the project: to “freeze music”, to convert that abstract, ethereal and ephemeral emotion into a geometrizable and constructible envelope.

Based on this idea we studied the geometries of sound waves, trying to find patterns that would allow us to achieve an interior envelope that would identify the space with musical movement; on the one hand loose and organic, but, on the other hand, very methodical and mathematical. We immediately understood that the project had to be resolved by integrating only two elements: metal and light. The project consists of this unique, continuous piece, made up of metal ribs and scales that together create dynamic undulations, generating a vertical and horizontal envelope that covers the 640m2 of the space, and resolve the different situations of use. The development of this element required a high degree of technical complexity in order to achieve the desired image of lightness and fluidity. The effect of the light filtering through the spaces generates movement and a richness of shadows and reflections that precisely creates the desired effect. The complexity of this element coexists in the project with a great main bar that, in contrast to the dynamism of the envelope, in this case is a single, monolithic and immobile piece that functionally resolves the gastronomic proposal. Both elements dialogue and coexist through the warmth of its lighting.

The project is based on the idea of creating a space that, given the characteristics of the client, seeks to create different situations related to the hotel and gastronomic experience.

It is a private gastronomic development center for FEHGRA (Federación Empresaria Hotelera y Gastronómica de la República Argentina). The complexity of resolving a great diversity of programmatic needs in just 1399sqf was addressed through the strategy of generating a route whose design and materiality decisions resolve the different situations of use, achieving a unique and integrating experience.

This route proposes to go through different stations that include a barism and cafeteria island, a cocktail bar island, a specialised library sector, a product exhibition area (tableware, accessories, etc.), a cellar room prepared for tastings and samplings, and finally an auditorium that ends in a show cooking island equipped with cutting-edge technology in terms of gastronomic equipment.

Each of these stations is designed as a sequence of granite blocks that, through their arrangement and size, recreate the passage from one island to another, generating an organic and monomaterial promenade. A vaulted ceiling inspired by the textures and materiality of the distillate barrels unifies the spaces, contributing to the sense of a journey. In the same way, the use of wooden planked cladding treated using the Shou Sugi Ban method appears throughout the entire project, delicately and elegantly reminiscent of wood burning in the fire and the kitchen. The general lighting was resolved with both spot and indirect lighting, but adding the design of pieces designed for the occasion and handcrafted to generate reflections and sparkles that allude to the dreamlike and festive sense of the world of sparkling wines.

The project is inspired by the dreamlike universe of textures and materials from the Mediterranean world. The most characteristic element is the waves of the sea, which we implemented through two constructive elements on the ground and first floor. Both give a specific function, one of them as a bar back on the first floor, and the other as a long zigzagging bench that organizes the central area of the upper floor.

White tones are the most predominant throughout the space, suggested by the constructions so characteristic of those latitudes.  The use of mosaic in blue and turquoise tones is clearly a constructive resource that represents an era and an art typical of the Mediterranean.

The use of white painted wood strips as cladding in most of the space generates a rhythmic texture which suggests a relationship with the strategy used in the areas developed with the waves.

The terrazzo flooring in natural and ochre tones throughout the facility gives the space a sensibility of subtle and tiny stones that integrate with the “Mediterranean mood”.

Finally, the vegetation that emerges from the long bench predominates in its tones as if it were the integration of real nature merged with the allegorical metaphor of the sea.

From an organizational point of view, both the first floor and the upper floor are divided into two areas, the production and the service area. They are both separated by glass partitions as a typical allegory of the old factory windows. The restaurant has large areas for private use, such as the kitchens, production room, camera room and offices, representing 40% of the total area of both levels, which guarantees a functional production for the restaurant’s needs.

The project is based in an old house in the Palermo neighborhood. The space in question underwent a complete overhaul, with two new accesses leading to two separate spaces complementing each other depending on the restaurant’s hours of operation.

Traditionally, patios in old Buenos Aires houses have been a space for congregation. Our first major design strategy was to create an access courtyard immediately adjacent to the facade as both a symbol and shock effect. This allowed for a new facade with a language of its own while still preserving the old style of the main facade. From a functional perspective, the patio is integral to the takeaway model, while also exploring a post-covid exterior use.

The proposed language was the outcome of a thorough breakdown of defining elements within the gastronomic proposal, one that celebrates the typical American pastry shop. Hence the reference to the old way of “cooling the pie by the window” and its corollary proposal to use multiple windows in the facade of the entrance courtyard.

Another determining element has been the abstract representation of “cakes or pies” made by cardboard rings as a system of “skins” covering certain areas. Prominent examples of this are the entrance arches and the back of the bar, both intended to draw the customers´ attention throughout the entire purchase process.

These “cakes or pies” also include two traditional symbols of pastry baking (the colander and the beaters) merged into a single piece.

The interior architecture language is a vernacular composition in the typical demolished industrial style. In fact, the word “demolished” itself denotes the idea of using elements simulating an “under construction” environment: wood from scaffolding, iron from construction sites, and metallic fabrics. These are all neutral materials comprising a universe of constructive layers. Surrounding them is a run-down, abandoned house where the dry vegetation has taken over.

The lighting has become a distinctive element built with wooden structure supports and surrounded by dried vegetation, representing how vegetation can take over an abandoned wooden scaffolding structure.

On the second floor, and through symbolic wooden windows and a large vegetation  creeping up through them, is a private lounge where the high cocktail bar gains presence. We emulated the idea of the tree house through the symbolic “Lagerstroemia tree” in the center of the courtyard, and the use of wood around it.

The commercial space is located in Buenos Aires. It´s small surface (735 ft² ) was decisive to its compositional strategy, since in such a small space the impact had to be immediate. Therefore, the colors had to achieve an immediate immersion effect.

Having in mind that the product are burgers, the design strategy is based on the single intervention (folds) of the single material (sheet metal), enriching the sobriety through changes of rhythm, application of textured patinas and lighting design, all of which refers to the hot iron of the baking plates.

Its rythm shifts, textured patinas, lighting design, red neon tones, and the scarce graphic intervention are all associated with the leading idea of hot cast iron plates.

The project is the result of a research we have done during the development of the identity for the Artois coffee project, in which we elaborated a language that represents the brand Stella Artois for its venues, the company that commissioned us.

There are elements in the proposal that refer to the old typical European cafés of the early twentieth century, closely related to the Parisian ones.

The arches have been a resource that we re-elaborated respecting its elegant features, but implemented as a envelope composing a volume that can be easily interpreted from the distance.

The envelope has a sequence of repeated and overlapped circumferences generating a dense but permeable boundary, in the same time opting for voids where free communication with the service is required.

The stand has two distinct facades given its asymmetrical enclave. The opposite side is incorporated into the old building of the market shed, in contrast to the stand façade, which is detached from the walls and ceiling. Both sides are connected from the bar services.

The project has a monochromatic imprint but with a heterogeneous composition in its materials, such as refractory bricks, iron and marble, all part of the tectonic family.

The antique mirror and the chandelier-like luminaires with their spheres are part of the Parisian imaginary of the cafés of the twentieth century.

The space reflects through the poetics of the temporality of the scaffolding the breaking point in the evolution from art deco to the new aesthetic order, the modernism. The idea was inspired by the exact moment of the economic crash of 29, inspired by the novel The Crack up by Scott Fitzgerald.

Osten is a cocktail bar and restaurant located in the distinguished neighborhood of Puerto Madero, in Buenos Aires. The total 460 sqm are divided in 310 sqm covered and 150 sqm exteriors.

At first glance there is a large corridor built with scaffolding and the name Osten on a sign hung on a perforated metal located at the main entrance that functions as a waiting room, as a result of an effect of provocation to discover the space step by step.

The corridor has 6 different arches that constitute the accesses to the general space. This is mainly due to the fact that these spaces can be isolated in order to divide the areas as private spaces.

The entrance to the bar is located at the end of the corridor, highlighted by a perforated metal with the bar’s identity design. This corridor divides the entire space into two large areas of use and at the back a large bar.

The outdoor area can be accessed from the sidewalk or from a special access from the interior.

The presence of scaffolding as a support for an era that could no longer stand on its own. The essential characteristic of the scaffolding devices is ultimately the temporality of their use, and it is this word “temporality” that defines the end of that era of elegance and waste of money.

These scaffoldings support large sheet metal arches painted in bronze color, but without the brightness or grandiloquence, rather aged.

These arches host all the most representative areas of the bar, such as: the access through a large corridor, the large bar & its back, the staircase and the perimeter sitting. The nodes that hold each intersection of the scaffolding are aged with old bronze paint.

Modernism is represented essentially the inner skin constructed of concrete boards and marble applied over different areas. These mables panels are disposed in between the scaffolding structure, looking for a relationship between the elegant and the provisional.

Modernism also manifests itself in the lighting system where the two worlds are combined, the modern with its acrylic tubes and through the envelope with art deco drawings. In the same way the large luminaires that simulate chandeliers, hanging with acrylic tubes and chains that represent the caireles

The graphic identity developed from the naming typography was applied in different areas, in the form of stencils on the walls and through perforations in metal sheets that also function as dividers. As a result of the typographic development, graphic pieces with feminine profiles have been developed and applied in the form of artistic paintings holded by the scaffolding system.

In the exterior area we have resolved, with the same identity elements as in the interior, as is the example of the scaffolding system to support the seat and the lighting system whose design is part of the family of elements of the interior. A large mural designed with elements of the typographic and iconographic family was developed by the brand’s team.

The tonality of old bronze, dark green, light green and blue were the result of a sober and elegant composition.