Javier Agustin Rojas

OBJETIVO

The project was thought from three central axes: the relationship between meeting spaces and rest spaces, the link between experiences in covered spaces and traditionally open areas, and finally the possible gradual dialogues between the transparency and opacity generated in the facade of the building, with a deep outcome inside.
The floor plan of the building consists of two apartments per floor. In them, the meeting spaces (integrated living room and kitchen) were designed towards the front, while the quiet part of the building was used for the bedrooms. The design of the floor plan, not only in its distribution but also in the allocation of size to each space, enhances shared experiences and encourages new ways of building intimacy.
The living room of each apartment takes the full width of the unit and is linked to a carpentry that allows the fusion with the balcony, building a new transitional space between the open and the covered, between the outside and the inside.
As It was essential to guarantee the comfort conditions of the home, both spatially and thermally, on the front of the building (northeast) we designed a series of tensioned fabric sliding shutters to guarantee the thermal stability of the building and minimize energy consumption.
The façade of the building, then, accompanies this transitional process: the sliding panels, while collaborating with thermal and light control, acoustic absorption and energy saving, generate -throughout the day- different dialogues between those who inhabit the house and the environment that contains it.

CONTEXTO

The project is located in Belgrano, a residential neighborhood in the city of Buenos Aires. In the recent years the neighborhood has undergone a significant growth in the development of buildings, restaurants and commercial stores, with a very dissimilar architecture and without a common identity. The context, then, called us to think of a building as neutral as possible, simple and quiet, achieving privacy for those who live in it and projecting visual tranquility to the outside.
The building is located in a special block: in front of it, the city regulations prevent high-rise projects from being built, so the building is guaranteed a significant relationship with natural light, with the environment and with views of parks, trees and the city.
Regarding the morphology of the project, we thought of a six-story building, accommodating its height and front setbacks according to the pre-existing neighbors of the block, achieving visual and morphological continuity with the environment.
In the neighborhood are the most important parks of the city of Buenos Aires, where people carry out sports and recreational activities. This peculiarity allowed us to think of a building that would not have the amenities that are generally present today (gyms, activity rooms), focusing on the creation of spacious apartments for family gatherings and to enable the parks as an extension of the building. In this sense, architectural decisions such as the design of the façade were central in addressing the dialogue between the building and an extremely valuable exterior for the inhabitants.