Located in the Palermo neighborhood, a few meters from Plaza Armenia and in the middle of a residential and commercial area, the M1918 project seeks to provide a solution to the high demand of mono-environmental residential and professional apartments through spatial quality units.

The building occupies the entire surface of the plot generating a compact and homogeneous building volumen, divided into three blocks by internal courtyards, containing all 22 units. Three floors and two basements with garage complete the 2405m2 of built area. The shape of the building is the maximum volumen allowed by the Building Code of the City of Buenos Aires.

The entrance to the building proposes the experience of access as a promenade, crossing a semi-urban sidewalk, in double height, and crossing the irregular semi-covered areas defined by the upper blocks. Green walls, patios and side walls, added to the semi-covered double height, make the access a real travel experience.

Starting from the client’s requirement to achieve the maximum number of functional units within a small footprint, the design sought from the outset to give each of them spatial quality by flooding them with natural light and offering them generous and private external extensions. The design approach was to solve each of the building’s blocks by locating 2 units per floor, and in a transverse direction to the party walls, in order to free in all cases the longest façade and place the windows.

Each unit has its own external, private, wide, green and luminous extension. This explains the decision to separate the building from the front line, creating a space between the “street façade” and the building façade itself, and placing balcony terraces in this space.

The maximum expression of the project lies in the “encastre” between the terraces and the interior spaces: the use of materials aims at a visual chromatic homogeneity. Both the façade and the interiors are solved by showing the complexity of the structure (fair-faced concrete), accompanied by the openings (large glass panels), which are accommodated according to the laws determined by the concrete.

The building is located in the neighborhood of San Telmo, a traditional neighborhood of Buenos Aires, whose heights are regulated by the building code of the ctiy. For this reason it was necessary to work on a compact building project and this necessarily impact the decision that the access is below the level of the sidewalk.

The building has 16 functional units, parking lots for 6 cars and a commercial space at the front. On the ground floor is located a retail space and at successive levels are 3 story housing of studios apartments, one bedroom apartments, and two bedroom apartments.

The project contemplates a structure of long beams that confers to the floor plants some flexibility and this allows that diverse sizes of dwellings. On the rooftop there are 4 private terraces which in the future can be accessed by spiral stairs.

What characterizes the project is the use of two facade lines: one of them more dense and monolithic; and behind that line a lighter and translucent one. Because of this we decided to use a palette of materials such as concrete and galvanize iron that defines the aesthetic configuration of the project. Our work in general is characterized by trying to use bitonal materials that do not compete with formal expression or functionality.

The plasticity of the concrete has allowed us to mold the partitions with dents placed in a repetitive rhythmic, and this gives the concrete structure a rupture in the typical homogeneity of this material. The use of galvanized meshes panels offers a certain balance between their transparency and the density of the concrete.

Connections From the beginning this project had to answer to two different voices, or two customers. Both required the same amount of square meters for their future homes. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this project was understanding how to complete the entire buildable volume equally for both owners without them losing the ability to access almost all of the lot size in width and length. The strategy chosen for this purpose was to criss cross the meters that corresponded to each of them so that both units rotated through the axis of the central courtyard in a centrifuge-like manner. To criss cross both properties it was decided to use stairs that functioned as sleeve-like bridges connecting both units. Volumes The shape of the building is the result of the completion of the maximum buildable potential volume allowed by the law of the city of Buenos Aires for this neighborhood. It is a shape reminiscent of Hugh Ferriss´ volumetric studies that were popularized back in 1920s Manhattan. Such was the effort to use all its meters that it was decidedto maintain two areas of the original property clearly exposed through its brick floors in the vault, allowing to actually use these spaces, something that the city law would not have allowed for that neighborhood. The new building also recalls the old spatial organization positioned over the old tracks of the old home courtyards, adapting the old layout of the ground floor to the two new homes. Property A (with a ground floor and two levels) has 4 rooms and property B (of the same height) has 5 rooms. Both properties are stepped, thus releasing terraces on both the front and the counter-front.

Operations empty To achieve the light denied by the volumetric walling that is so present in the project, the facades were operated upon by large gaps between forgings, and operation evidenced in the details of the beams, which led to the decision of doing the windows through the “French balconies” system. These gap operations were accompanied by a system of enclosures whose folds and textures sought to show a certain vertical tension continued throughout the development of both facades, thus striking a balance with the high volume of neutral walling of the whole. The inner courtyard that organizes the circulations in a centrifuge-like manner has a window system of a self-evident simplicity that gives way to the prominence of the multi-directional stairs. The greatest achievement of this project was adapting two houses whose volumetric ambition exceeded the capacity of the terrain, to the older original marks. This was achieved through a strategy of simple connections that would cover the whole site on both houses.

Construction was organized through a very specific set of needs from the owner. It had to be an area with independent access within the house, one that that not only would solve the needs for leisure and recreation, but that would also have the asset of functioning along with the garden as a backing for those needs. This would result in a barbecue shed/playroom/office as well as the guest rooms.

The organizational strategy was conceived and outlined by focusing on a sole object that would be capable of solving the whole technological complexity by itself and from its location within the lot so as to adjust to the functionality of the whole.

The morphology and placing of this piece is the result of a search for tensions applied to the whole, assuming that the practically symmetric receptacle (the lot) required enhancing this search through a strong intentionality.

This way the spaces provided by this piece become just a simple circulation of services on one of its sides. Nevertheless, understanding the capacity of the object to host all programs in each one of its cells manages to solve the relation with the whole through its other bifacial face, thus providing the main void with a functional sense, as if it were a matter of vindicating the old game of the kantihan paradigm.

Hence this object was constituted from the beginning under a constructive complexity that has nothing to do with the outer shell. This element that resulted from a subtraction of solids ends up hosting all the programs its provides the space with in each one of its cells, the rest being just a void covered by a shell and joined by a palette of whites made of only three materials: metal plates, OSB plaques, and masonry.

The chosen constructive system is grey isolating refractive brick, though which we have sought an interpretation of different densities starting with choosing different blockings, rowing each of its voids through concrete slabs, thus providing a different visual and constructive perspective to the monochromatic receptacle of the whole.

The functional ubiquitousness of this piece is such that it not only serves from the totality of the services, but it also connects the space vertically, containing a staircase in one of its cells. The mezzanine is built from a light system and covered with phenolic plaques, and it solves the issue of spaciousness without ceasing to be served by this piece , one which always expects to be the protagonist by containing the space of the desk as well as an access to the semi-covered expanse.

The technological solution of the outer shell solves the cover through a curve metal plaque, which continues all the way until it completes the whole façade. The latter is operated through superior openings that solve the inner illumination, and inferior openings with a technology that allows them to unify space-wise the inside with the outside.

The monochromatic Choice of the outer shell (both in its inner as well as its outer side) as well as the radicalization of the use of metal plaques that are continuous from its cover until the totality of its façade, are a clear evidence of the respect shown for the ubiquitousness of this piece. Its modest eagerness for absence is such that on its ground floor it clears the way for this virtuous piece, as if it the functional balance of the whole depended solely on it—which is, by the way, the correct interpretation of this project.

From the beginning of the project we understood the intrinsic qualities associated with this piece of urban fabric. We here deal with a rectangular space with measures that do not exceed 7.50 m x 12.00 m located practically in the heart of the square. This is a dwelling unit of the type of the row houses in the city of Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the last century it was common to build small houses with the conceptual characteristics of the “sausage house” multiplied for the depth of an urban lot. The project then rose as a challenge to customer demands whose programmatic needs far exceeded the possibilities offered by the nature of the terrain. We also had to be aware of the constraints brought by the responsibility of reforming a historic site that was protected by the law of the city of Buenos Aires.

Limited to four workstations divided by only four walls, and conditioned by the small floor area, the premise of creating an interior courtyard became the alma mater of the project, following which we organized the housing, ordered the other spaces vertically upward reaching for air, light, and private visual, finishing it off with a pool deck.
The decision on the choice and use of materials reflects the same search for each space to place it in the courtyard, in a complete and honest way, creating a glazed inner skin and a solid outer skin, resulting in either both its materiality and its spatial proportions and the idea of ​​a pavilion floor, rather than a traditional house.

Taken to the extreme, the intention was one of generating an ethereal skin-core into the courtyard of the house, and searching for a structural, tectonic and construction that would lead us to the idea of ​​”disappearing” the structure and thus achieve a certain voltage determined by weightlessness based on the idea of ​​a “floating pool” over living spaces. This idea was decisive along with that of the use of a mixed structure, with iron columns to continue the centerline of the woodwork, which is clearly opposed to the concrete volumes of marked visual presence.

The search for constructive thinking, of an architecture of noble materials, and of the use of reinforced concrete, iron and glass panels, was complemented by the decision to use refractory bricks as the sole material for partitions, in view of achieving the desired aesthetic and insulation conditions. In turn we also reused elements of the pre-existing dwelling unit which refers us to the original spirit of the property, which combined with the proposed contemporary design, constitute an added value to the project.

Regarding the links between elements, it is also interesting to look at this house. Since the refractory brick wall in the subtle touch on the existing wall (in line with this concrete column that supports the pool) the subtlety of the smithy of its columns in relation to the crystals, to frameless doors verticality to offer certain environments, everything makes a set of simple but delicate analysis in its composition.

The project was always dominated by the constant search for natural light, but it was a search which served to form the crystal clear idea of ​​weightlessness that the volume of concrete gave the space. This element ends by sewing the project clearly always looking for a dynamic cut prefixed to static symmetry structured plant.

The movement of the housing is closely related to the courtyard and its visual crossing it vertically and spiraled from the PB, to 1P and finally to the roof. Both from the circulation and from each room of the house can see the true essence of vernacular courtyard.
The visuals to the corridor are screened by a “cushion plant” provided by planters, thanks to which provides more depth to the dividing wall on a large scale.
The skylight gives the only light that is controlled, illuminating the brick wall that frames the movement of the two levels.

The program is reversed to what is traditionally understood as private and public space as a result of understanding the character of space to live during both day and night, creating a provision that goes private in the ground floor to the public on first floor, looking for something tall, light and visual.

The ground floor contains two bedrooms en suite and a nearly symmetric entrance hall whose functionality can also be an office / expansion into the courtyard, which is the result of an interstitial space between the two functional suites.
The floor, which is certainly where public program seeks visual light and the sky from his room and kitchen / dining room, are both connected by a bridge. The tour ends after crossing the outer circulation that connects the first terrace on a slope with respect to the second.

This is a house that offers certain complexity in court, not in facility, which maintains an orderly and symmetrical linear program. In plant there are replicate circulation spaces on both levels, below the level of the pool. The remaining two wings at both levels are in substantially equal proportions.
In court we verify the range of heights by proposing a dynamic of continuous and staggered run. The limitation of the size of the yard was the reason for the levels of the different terraces. The development of the stairs to the terrace should respond to consistent proportions and dimensions, thus indirectly allowing for a dynamic height in both environments while differentiating the uses on both terraces. Also noteworthy is a differentiation in the flooring, which verifies the diversity of activities in relation to the use of the terraces, one in relation to activities link with the interior of the house and another as a solarium in direct contact with the pool.

Materials
The equipping the house was designed with the understanding that it should only meet the minimum needs to respond to the existing current hotel demands in Buenos Aires. Beds, phones that allow for various provisions, little furniture and simple lines.
All the furniture was made of wood.
To meet the criteria of a sustainable house, considering that the heat loss of the crystals is a real demand for the need for light, it was decided to use DVH in virtually all mobile cloths. The fittings were performed with equipment multi-split VRV (Variable refrigerant volume) which allows control of electricity consumption. The dual flush system on the toilet is to save water consumption.
All facilities are electric, with gas left only for the use of pool heating.
Technically the pool was resolved with a system called “Liner” whose conditions should avoid the full potential of water filtration, whereas below this are the dining and livings room of the house.
The pool must also meet minimum standards of maintenance by using automated cleaning systems imported from Europe.
Elements such as access doors to the rooms, the flooring of brick, were details reminiscent of the old home.
All these elements associated with the use of iron, glass and concrete in its purest form, coupled with minimal intervention of the walls have established a balance we have sought i