Austere brick walls cloak a bright skylit painting studio at the heart of Atelier Cambre in Argentina, designed by local architecture practice Esteras Perrote.

The studio sits nestled within the mountainous, forested landscape of Còrboda's Punilla Valley, and was created for Argentinian artist Juan José Cambre.

Tasked with recreating the feeling of painting outdoors, Esteras Perrote organised the studio around a five-metre-high painting space, which is illuminated by long skylights and opens onto a terrace through a set of folding glass doors.

"One of the central gestures of the project emerged from a very simple request from the client: the possibility of painting outdoors," said the studio's co-founder Gonzalo Perrote.

"From that idea, we began to explore how the architecture could incorporate that experience without losing the sense of refuge of the studio," Perrote told Dezeen.

"Rather than a collection of rooms, the project proposes a generous working environment where light, landscape and painting structure the experience of the place."

The large volume containing Atelier Cambre's main studio space is connected to a tower-like service and circulation volume via a short, glazed link.

This tower contains bathrooms and a staircase leading up onto a rooftop terrace.

Both volumes have been clad in locally-sourced red brick, a choice informed by a small structure that had formerly stood on the site as well as a desire to blend in with the landscape.

Inside, the painting area sits beneath four long, narrow skylights. At the opposite end, a study area and small kitchenette are tucked under a steel mezzanine level that offers a vantage point over the painting space.

Carefully placed openings throughout the building frame views of the surrounding woodland, with two tall, narrow openings at the end of the painting space creating cross-ventilation to facilitate drying.

White finishes and natural wood floors create a minimal backdrop to Cambre's paintings, with the only colour in the interiors being a series of green cabinet doors alongside the kitchenette.

"Rather than imposing itself on the landscape, the architecture seeks to situate itself within it, using that open space as an opportunity," fellow co-founder Lucía Esteras told Dezeen.

"In this sense, each window was conceived as a specific frame of the surroundings, almost as a device to capture fragments of the landscape and bring them back into the interior," he added.

Other painting studios recently featured on Dezeen include The Grey County Studio in Ontario by Verge Select, which comprises three intersecting weathered steel volumes that overlook a woodland, and a historic barn restored by Schack Arkitektur for the painter Michael Kvium in Denmark.

The photography is by Javier Agustín Rojas.

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Local studio Juan Campanini – Josefina Sposito has fronted wine shop Enofilo with a metallic mesh facade that responds directly to the complex Buenos Aires streetscape.

At 175 square metres (1,883 square feet), Enofilo opened in 2025 inside an existing house on Avenida Juramento in the rapidly densifying Bajo Belgrano neighbourhood.

The studio worked to create a space that worked with the challenging spatial and stylistic constraints of the neighbourhood.

"The project was inspired by the challenge of working within a city like Buenos Aires – a place made up of countless small fragments that together compose its urban landscape," Juan Campanini – Josefina Sposito told Dezeen. "We wanted our intervention to belong to that fabric, to add one more layer that could resonate with the city's texture."

Like a woven fabric, sliver-coloured metallic mesh stretches across the existing brick wall, standing apart from the context while acknowledging the shop's role as a fragment in the larger urban realm, the studio explained.

The facade works in tandem with a blue, metallic staircase that stands where the original patio once was, serving as an organising element for the spatial sequence and connection to the project's urban and domestic scales.

"The facade, a precise and shimmering plane, mediates between the life of the street and the interior, marking the threshold to the wine shop," the studio said.

"The facade mesh is cut into precise panels that follow the subtle variations of the front – its step, door and window – and is screwed onto a hidden frame behind it," the studio explained.

"Although it appears smooth and continuous, the surface is composed of individual parts whose proportions increase gradually from bottom to top, in crescendo."

Seemingly small from the street, the building extends deep into the plot, passing from the entrance to the staircase, which "anchors the space" and bridges the front of the building to the courtyard in the back of the block.

Visitors enter into a communal tasting area lined with built-in shelving used as a wine library, also clad in mesh.

A dark granite surface serves as a counter, set under rough, sand-coloured plaster ceilings.

A large, white-painted structural collumn rises from polished concrete flooring and marks the ground-level hallway, where auxiliary rooms were placed off to one side.

The lower half of the walls and counters was painted a soft blue that connects the interiors to the staircase, which has a vaulted awning as it leads to the upper floor.

The delicate, cross-shaped pattern of the perforated metal diffuses air and light.

On the second floor, a long table and large windows open the private office space to the city skyline.

The studio said that the mesh scheme helped to draw focus to the most important elements in the project.

"The key lesson is understanding how to focus energy – deciding which elements of a project will carry the greatest relevance," the studio said.

"In this case, we chose to focus on redefining the building's street-front relation and elevating the staircase through its surface treatment. Both elements, ordinary in name, become special through form and materials."

Other recently designed wine shops include a burgundy leather-wrapped showroom in Milan by Eligo Studio, a Brooklyn bar with a "soothing atmosphere" by Studio Ahead and a cave-like interior with a vaulted ceiling in Valladolid, Spain by Zooco Estudio.

The photography is by Javier Agustín Rojas.

Project credits:

Architects: Juan Campanini – Josefina Sposito
Project Team: Valentina Lucardi, Valentina Bauger, Martina Pera, Emilia Conde

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Local studio Adamo Faiden has completed Huergo 475, a skyscraper with a green-pigmented concrete facade and a series of cantilevers in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The tower has an exposed concrete facade that is also structural, and was designed by Adamo Faiden to both be monolithic and to blend in with the cityscape.

"The exposed concrete facade serves a structural role while simultaneously defining the project's identity," studio co-founder Marcelo Faiden told Dezeen.

"To create a monolithic appearance, a grooved-textured formwork was designed, visually softening the impact of the concrete pouring process."

The Huergo 475 residential skyscraper is 120.6 metres tall with 39 floors and 507 apartments. It is located in the northeast Buenos Aires, between a dense urban landscape and a biological reserve.

The skyscraper is broader on one side and more slender when viewed from another. It has a central core with lightweight, beamless slabs, according to the studio.

At points, the facade is also slightly faceted in order to mitigate what Faiden called the "dizzying" effect of the skyscraper's horizontality.

The structure has a series of double-height spaces and cantilevers that Faiden called "horizontal shifts", and which he said respond directly to the environment.

All of the public spaces of the building are located here, including a gym, coworking space, and a shared kitchen.

These spaces feature double-height windows that contrast with the single-floor windows, creating a pattern of different-sized windows on the facade.

Huergo 475 also has a public passageway on the ground floor that runs next to a retail element.

"We designed this tower as a geographical feature," said Faiden.

"With different terraces that can be used as an observatory of Buenos Aires' landscape. In that sense, we wanted to reduce its material palette to its minimum, while approaching them in a non-hierarchical way."

Inside, the architecture studio also chose to leave the concrete exposed, but it is more raw. Many of the interiors also feature aluminium ceilings.

Notably, at the top of the skyscraper is a partially enclosed pool and communal area. This area is landscaped with planters that curve upwards, creating a slope.

Faiden said the skyscraper was designed to relate directly to the city.

"Huergo 475 is not about relating the ground to the sky, it doesn't have an ascendence desire," he said.

"It's about reaffirming the landscape around it – the historical city, the park and La Plata River."

Other skyscrapers recently completed in Buenos Aires include a glass-clad skyscraper by Rafael Viñoly Architects.

The photography is by Javier Augustín Rojas.

Project credits: 

Construction: CRIBA
Management and construction management: Sposito & Asociados
Consultants: AHF S.A. (design and structural calculation), Ing. Julio Blasco Diez (thermomecanic installation), ASELEC (electrical installation), Estudio Labonia y asoc, (sanitary/fire/gas installation), Skin arquitectura (facade), Green Group (certification EDGE), Grupo Landscape (botanics), Arq. Arturo Peruzzotti (illumination), Belm Ingenieros Asociados (waterproofing), José Victor D'Ángelo, Hugo Bersanker (PET).

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In this week's comments update, readers are discussing an office building with a glass facade in Buenos Aires by Rafael Viñoly Architects.

The Vilo Tower office building features double-height floors linked by a concrete scissor stair enclosed in glass.

"Very elegant and clean"

Commenters were torn. AlfredHitchcock thought "visually, it's quite stunning". This sentiment was echoed by Karl, who called it "quite the gem of a building!"

Miles Teg also had nothing but praise."If you set out to build an all-glass office tower, this should be the way to do it," they argued, adding "Very elegant and clean."

However, Leo issued a word of warning, writing "it's hard to believe that someone who lived in Buenos Aires would propose a greenhouse as an office." They continued: "Everyone inside will be cooked in summer."

What's your take? Join the discussion ›

"Cheap and cheerful and removable"

Also stoking debate in the comments section this week was a viewing tower in the Czech Republic constructed from two long, narrow shipping containers.

Marius questioned the logic. "The view from the top of the hill was great to begin with, but we couldn't help ourselves – as always, we had to improve it by adding some carbuncle."

But the project had just as many admirers as detractors, with Colin MacGillivrary, arguing "it's a good idea – cheap and cheerful and removable."

"Love this!" exclaimed Yada yada yada, before suggesting it was "the kind of thing that could be built as a temporary structure in all sorts of interesting places."

Have you had your say? Join the discussion ›

"They should all have letters"

Also providing plenty of fodder in the comments section was a story about the updated logos for Microsoft's Office applications, which have been redesigned for the first time since 2018.

HeywoodFloyd thought "they look great, they should all have letters though."

But not everyone was convinced by the redesign. "It's like with other trends – they come and go," contributed Maciej Zalucki.

For Bunkermentality, "the word 'tacky' springs to mind." They thought "the 2013 version was the best, it's all downhill from there in terms of legibility and recognisability."

What do you reckon? Join the discussion ›

Comments update

Dezeen is the world's most commented architecture and design magazine, receiving thousands of comments each month from readers. Keep up to date on the latest discussions on our comments page and subscribe to our weekly Debate newsletter, where we feature the best reader comments from stories in the last seven days.

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Architecture studio Rafael Viñoly Architects has completed a 16-storey skyscraper in Buenos Aires featuring double-height floors linked by a concrete scissor stair enclosed in glass.

The Vilo Tower office building serves as a headquarters for airport operator Corporación América. It is located along the busy Avenida del Libertador thoroughfare in Buenos Aires, which weaves along the city's coastline.

It stands 60 metres tall at 16 storeys, with a facade made of translucent 7.15 metre by 2.2 metre glass panels.

Its curved corners are free of visible mullions, which "dissolve the interior and exterior boundary", according to Rafael Viñoly Architects.

The building's structural staircase and elevator shaft stand as an exposed spine on the backside, while the glass-enclosed floors extend outwards along its front.

Along its facade, the floors are double-height with a mezzanine level at the centre, while single-storey spaces are tucked towards the back of the building.

According to the studio, the structure is a "hybrid", made up of a traditional concrete structure paired with a "two-storey module" that creates interior flexibility and "spatially varied floor plates".

"In designing Vilo Tower, Rafael Viñoly succeeded in creating an architecture of transparency and rationality," said Rafael Viñoly Architects partner Román Viñoly.

"It elegantly dialogues with its surroundings and gives its occupants the greatest layout flexibility. The way the design reveals its hybrid structural system is a hallmark of our firm's commitment to putting logic at the center of architectural expression."

The building's base was imagined as an "urban greenhouse" and expands three storeys, with the ground floor submerged below street level.

A public restaurant sits below and connects to the main elevator bay via a curving, black-clad spiral staircase, while concrete pillars extend the height of the space.

The remaining floors are outfitted with office space clad in a light wood and black accents, including dark-hued office furniture and textured ceiling and wall panels.

The uppermost floor contains a terrace wrapped in the same double-height glass panels that cover the building, while its ceiling is open to the sky.

The building is aiming for LEED v4 Core and Shell Gold certification.

Rafael Viñoly Architects recently completed a skyscraper in New York City with a similarly exposed concrete core and unveiled plans for a terminal at the Florence Airport in Italy covered in a vineyard.

The studio's founder, Rafael Viñoly, passed away in 2023.

The Uruguayan architect was raised in Buenos Aires and began his career studying architecture at the University of Buenos Aires. He would later go on to open his first office in the city.

"The [Vilo] building marks my father's final contribution to the city that gave him his start as an architect," said his son Román.

The photography is by Daniela Mac Adden

Project credits:

Architect of record and lead designer: Rafael Viñoly Architects
Structural engineer: Curutchet del Villar
MEP / FP engineer: GNBA
Lighting designer: Cappiello + Partners
Construction manager: Amarilla

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International architecture practice OF Studio has created a brutalist concrete house with a cantilevered terrace and sloped foundations shaped by its site on a mountainside in Mendoza, Argentina.

Completed in 2024, the 571-square metre (6,146-square-foot) house known as Brutal Honesty took six years to construct on the edge of a canyon.

OF Studio, co-founded in London in 2017 by Argentinian architects Valentina Cerrone and Sebastián Andia, was informed by the raw presence, texture, and silence of the mountain itself.

"The house emerges naturally from the terrain, shaping a landscape that coexists with its surroundings," Andia told Dezeen. "We worked with material honesty, tectonics, and integrated sustainability, letting the architecture grow from the site itself."

The house rises from the terrain on earth-coloured retaining walls "like abstract rock formations," the studio explained, noting that the contours of the land drove the organisation of internal partitions and three main terraces.

The splaying walls define the tapering massing while shielding the house from the southern exposure of the canyon.

"The structure seems to emerge from the hill, yet asserts a new identity," the team explained, calling it "of abstract nature".

With a 360-degree view of the Andean desert mountains, the house is separated into three stacked stages: a basement inside the earth, a partially embedded ground floor and an upper level that rises out of the earth.

The kitchen sits at the heart of the home, branching off into communal spaces that stretch outwards in rounded-off angles.

Terraces extend off either side of the living and dining rooms, while a terrace off the playroom provides an outdoor zone for children. Shared outdoor spaces extend to the rooftop plateau with areas for recreation and relaxation surrounded by the landscape.

The edges of the upper plateau are outlined with rounded rectangular awnings with structural rods that shade the lower terraces and add a level of delicate detail in the stereotomic house.

The clients emphasised the importance of living with the land, maintaining views of the land, while preserving privacy.

"The project is about creating spaces that feel sincere, connect people, and let you experience the environment as part of everyday life," Andia said.

OF Studio selected exposed concrete for its resonance with local materials and builders, and matched the tones of the earth on site.

"This attention to materiality anchors the house in place, both visually and symbolically," the team said.

The thermal insulation, shading and natural ventilation strategies reduce energy demand, while solar panels, solar heaters and a greywater system enhance its environmental performance.

"In essence, Brutal Honesty is a built extension of the mountain – a space for living that neither conceals nor embellishes, but exists in open dialogue with its surroundings," the studio said. "It celebrates nature's raw presence through architecture that is both sincere and grounded."

Other concrete homes recently completed in Argentina include a subterranean forest home outside Buenos Aires with a garden roof by Gonzalo Bardach, a black concrete residence in Córdoba by AR Arquitectos and a blocky house overlooking a golf course in Rosario by Mariano Fiorentini.

The photography is by Luis Abba.

Project credits:

Architecture: OF STUDIO
Project lead: Sebastián Andia
Team: Valentina Cerrone Chaar, Carlos Fernando Andia, Daniel Carrera Ferreyra, Ana Paula Ridi, Alejandro Marchetti
Structures: ABAX – Gustavo Manresa, Alejandro Carosio, Pablo Martin
Sanitary and greywater systems: Daniel Giandinotto
Gas installations: Daniel Giandinotto
Electrical installations: Daniel F. Ridi
Landscaping: Elina Llaver
Sustainability and thermodynamic studies: SOLAR – Alfredo Estévez
Cooling and heating systems: Marcelo Gassibe, Gabriel Rover
Construction management and administration: Felipe Deshayy
Construction management assistant: Teo Rodríguez
Artistic supervision: OF STUDIO – Sebastián Andia, Valentina Cerrone Chaar
Technical Directorships:
Architecture: Jimena Andia
Structures: ABAX – Gustavo Manresa, Alejandro Carosio, Pablo Martin
Heating systems: Marcelo Gassibe, Gabriel Rover
Passive systems: ENERGE
Landscaping: Elina Llaver
Main wooden staircase manufacturer: Miguel Gandolfo
Lighting consultancies: ASPEN – Juan Pablo Balaña

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Architecture studio ODA has converted a derelict parking structure into a multi-use structure called OLA Palermo, adding green space on top as an extension of a nearby park.

ODA maintained as much as 80 per cent of the structure of the derelict parking structure, while converting it for office, retail and restaurant use.

Originally built to serve a horse racing venue, the car park had a standard slab-and-column structure that tapered to a point at one side, where a spiral ramp and columnar water tower were located.

Seeking to maintain as much of the original structure as possible, ODA took away the perimeter railing, stairways and the ramp and tower portion. The studio then reshaped the slabs, subtracting portions from the perimeter and inside, before adding new slabs.

On the wide side, a single slab was placed with a slope – this became the peak of the green space layered on top of the multi-use building. A semi-circular void was left in the middle to bring light into the interior of the building via a series of courtyards.

Meanwhile, on the shorter side, the studio placed a three-storey volume that extends from the centre of the plan, terminating in a circular, glass-clad volume informed by the dismantled water tower.

This rounded glass volume sits on a dramatic flared column.

A grand staircase passes underneath the rounded glass volume and leads from the existing park space up through the gently sloping rooftop green space.

ODA was also responsible for the landscaping. Lighting elements, seating and public art were intermixed with the walkways and planters.

The sides of the former parking garage were covered with glass as well, and feature sculptural concrete elements that connect the floor plates with the ground plane, emphasising the slope of the walkway above.

According to ODA founding principal Eran Chen, the design was meant to reintegrate disparate areas of the city.

"Rather than strip the structure to its bones or erase its history, we sought to work with it and rearticulate its form in a way that supports the future," Chen told Dezeen.

The glass-clad volume's reference to the old water tower was an important aspect of this, according to the architect, who said it "echoes the monumental past of the building".

"The result is transformational for the neighborhood," he continued.

"We capitalized on the building's location at the edge of Buenos Aires' central park, introducing a series of bold yet contextual moves, most notably, carrying a green path up the side of the structure to a landscaped rooftop, and down the other side to reconnect with the park, completing a once-broken loop."

Chen also noted the focus on reuse and the preference for using local materials and labour for the construction.

He highlighted the interior detailing,  focusing on "warm, tactile materials, locally inspired and human-scaled." Such materials include stone, wood and "soft concrete finishes".

The project was driven through by a public-private partnership between developer BSD Investments and the City of Buenos Aires. Architect and head of the city's urban development, Álvaro García Rest, said that the project was a useful use for "abandoned concrete infrastructure".

Other projects that utilise infrastructure to extend green space include a BIG-designed powerplant in Denmark, topped with a ski slope and a road median converted into a linear park in Mexico.

The photography is by Alan Karchmer.

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Five architecture projects have been named for the 2025 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, including an aquarium in Mexico by architecture studio Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and a Buenos Aires veterinary clinic by Adamo Faiden.

The five projects are part of Cycle 5 of the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) program, which awards a biennial prize to works of architecture in the Americas.

The finalist selections include two projects from Mexico and one from Argentina, Canada, and the United States. They also span a variety of programs and typologies, from landscape design to school and housing projects.

An eco park by Colectivo C733, the Clínica Veterinaria Guayaquil by Adamo Faiden, an Arkansas school by Marlon Blackwell Architects, an aquarium by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and a converted pumphouse in Winnipeg by 5468796 Architecture are all up for the award.

Completed in 2023, Ecoparque Bacalar is a square boardwalk that stretches out over a lagoon in Bacalar, Mexico. Colectivo C733 designed the project to have minimal impact on the habitat, which is home to the world's largest freshwater bacterial reef.

Across the country, with Centro de Investigación Mar de Cortés aquarium in Mazatlan, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio also aimed to showcase and preserve marine habitat.

The sprawling concrete aquarium was designed to resemble a "ruin" and is part of a larger regeneration project for the surrounding Mazatlán Central Park.

In Buenos Aires, Adamo Faiden converted a former residence into the Clínica Veterinaria Guayaquil, an urban veterinary clinic.

The studio removed the central staircase from the original building to create a courtyard with an adjoining garden that connects to the street. The design caters to the "non-human members" of cities, or pets, addressing their "new rights and responsibilities".

Canadian studio 5468796 Architecture also worked on an adaptive reuse project for the finalist selection. The studio preserved elements of the 1901 James Avenue Pumphouse in Winnipeg, opting to leave the original pumping equipment on display on the building's ground floor while inserting glass office volumes above.

The project also includes the addition of two black-clad housing blocks on either end of the pumphouse that connect to the building via elevated walkways.

Lastly, Marlon Blackwell Architects, Eskew Dumez Ripple and Andropogon Associates completed the Thaden School in Bentonville, a complex of buildings designed for grades six to 12 with a focus on learning by doing.

Marlon Blackwell Architects designed five long, angular buildings for the project informed by the vernacular architecture of the area. The structures have features that control exposure to the intense southern sun and optimise natural ventilation.

The review of "hundreds" of projects submitted for the prize began in Spring 2024, overseen by a jury that includes urban designer Maurice Cox, Canadian Centre for Architecture director Giovnna Borasi and Taller Mauricio Rocha founder Mauricio Rocha.

The winning project will be announced on 5 May 2025 at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, where the MCHAP was founded in 2013.

Previously, a weaving centre in Ecuador was awarded an Emerging Practice Award from the MCHAP, while Taller Mauricio Rocha's "fearless, heartfelt, and original" extension of Juan O'Gorman and Diego Rivera's Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City won in 2023.

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Local studio Gonzalo Bardach Arquitectura has created a concrete woodland house with a ramping green roof near the coast outside Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Located in a coniferous forest in Costa Esmeralda, the 282-square metre (3,035-square foot) Forest House is set into a dune, using the uneven topography to create a shelter with voids and framed views that create a connection between the interior and exterior spaces.

The 2023 design works to harmonize architecture and landscape by placing large voids filled with glass in the front and the back of the house, looking out, that allow residents to feel like they are surrounded by the trees.

At certain points in the perimeter, in circulation areas, the house is almost completely buried, and the space between the hills created by the structure are crossed by glass enclosures, furthing the experience of immersion.

The single-storey sleeping and service spaces are located in three linear pavilions partially buried in the dune and lined with extruding walls of board-formed concrete.

The ground slopes up to form a green roof, which also bridges the pavilions over a large central space that holds the kitchen, dining, and living rooms.

Light filters in through floor-to-ceiling glass walls and from the side of the house where the living room transitions to a small side gallery.

Over 50 square metres (560 square feet) of covered porch space is distributed across the plan with a large outdoor living area that heads out to the rectangular pool and a small awning off each bedroom that is created by the angled terminus of the stone walls.

"The architectural path in the Forest House is the main axis of the whole design, for which every sequence and space has been thought through," said said Gonzalo Bardach Arquitectura founder Gonzalo Bardach.

"It is a clear example of how to take into account not only morphology and program needs, but also the impact on the environment."

Selected for minimal life cycle maintenance and ability to integrate with the environment, the interior material palette includes liquid stone, wood, iron and glass.

"The liquid stone emerges as the distinctive and expressive element of the project, adapting to the terrain topography and enabling an effortless relationship between the architecture and the surrounding landscape," the studio said.

"The work is materially integrated into the environment, and this connection generates a sense of rootedness and refuge in the middle of the forest."

The materials allow the building to become a "living canvas" for sunlight filtering through the tree canopy, creating shadow patterns.

"In this refuge in the middle of the forest, sunlight becomes a dynamic element that constantly transforms the perception of the space, inviting us to experience a deeper connection with nature and with ourselves," the team said.

Stemming from botanical research of native Buenos Aires species, the garden roof promotes cross-species support and a more organic, less-controlled approach to maintenance. The biodiversity and adaptability allow the garden to develop its own rhythm.

Other projects recently designed in the forests of South America include a prefabricated house with a green roof in Brazil by MAPA and Minimod and a stilted glass house in Chile by Aguilo + Pedraza.

The photography is by César Béjar.

Project credits:

Architecture studio: Gonzalo Bardach Arquitectura
Architect: Gonzalo Bardach
Design team: Gonzalo Bardach, Martín Macca, Manuel Enriquez.
Landscape design: Gonzalo Bardach
Interior design: Gonzalo Bardach
Structural design: VH, Julián Venturini

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Local studio DRM Arquitectura has designed a space-framed drive-through ice cream parlour lifted on inverted V-shaped columns in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Veneciana Canning Ice Cream Drive Thru is situated on a busy roadside plot near National Route No. 58 that challenged the DRM Arquitectura team to create a calm atmosphere without disconnecting from the fast access road.

Following the studio's three-part design concept – product, person, place – the 300-square metre (3,230 square foot) parlour was a "quick-build roadside stop" that serves as an "announcement sign" for travellers in the bustling area.

The building is raised on two inverted V-shaped white columns and two simple columns to make it more visible, free up the ground floor, and create a semi-covered terrace with a view of the La Esperanza Golf Club.

"The metal structure is undoubtedly the protagonist of the space; making architecture from the structure is what we are passionate about," the team said.

Set back from the perimeter of the building, the prefabricated columns create a large plan and absorb all of the horizontal load from the upper level, serving as the only link to the second story.

The furniture and staircase "hang" from the space frame while the bar and floating circular restroom "folds" up from the floor.

"The ground floor proposes the dissolution of the building's limits both as a commercial strategy, aiming not to create barriers of entry and as a strategy to anchor to an environment with attributes valuable to the landscape, which can be incorporated as part of the building’s architecture," the team said.

Meanwhile, the upper floor is wrapped in a perimeter terrace shaded by a series of pergolas that control light and open dining space to the sounds and sights of the city. The interior of the upper floor houses an isolated children's play area.

A service tower – with mechanical equipment stacked on top of the staircase – adds a vertical counterpoint to the horizontal building that is nearly square in plan.

In order to expedite construction, the 15-tonne structural frame was prefabricated while the foundation was poured, and was transported to the site and hoisted into place.

Taking cues from the diagonal bracing in the trusses, the team replicated triangular patterns throughout the design including 45-degree patterns in the formwork of the precast white walls, perforated and sinusoidal white sheet metal, wood details, and welded tube ironwork.

"Depending on the time of day, some diagonal patterns are illuminated, and others are not due to the concavities and convexities, generating permanent mutations in the facades," the team said.

Other notable ice cream parlour designs include a compact Czech shop in Brno by Holky Rády Architeckturu, a blue-tiled "theatre of gelato" in Melbourne by Ewert Leaf, and a black and white "Instagrammable" interior for a Milk Train shop in London by FormRoom.

The photography is by Javier Agustin Rojas.

Project credits:

Architect: DRM Arquitectura
Team: Dimaio Luciano, Rocca Nicolás, Muerza Esteban, Ramiro Barraza, Augusto Latzke Blake, Lautaro Egui, Giuliana Scatuerchio, Sofía Prytoluk, Ignacio Llaneza, Fabián Bruno, Ezequiel Basso, Florencia Chumbes, Lucía Binetti
Engineering: Andres Moscatelli
Construction: Hernan Sotelo, Eduardo Tabaracci, Mauricio Chiarello

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Local studio DUB Arquitectura has created a metal-clad house called Casa La Escocesa, which features "insulating blankets" made of sheep wool that otherwise would have been incinerated.

The 150-square-metre project is located on a farm in Argentina's subtropical Pampas region, which consists of agricultural fields that stretch over flat plains. The building site is surrounded by crops, sheep and polo horses.

Long and rectangular in plan, the building sits atop a platform and is covered with a gabled roof. The house was designed by DUB Arquitectura, a studio based in Buenos Aires, to follow the site conditions and to allow for future expansion.

The interior is divided into four main areas: a kitchen and dining room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a multi-purpose attic space. A breezeway lies at the centre of the plan.

"The central patio serves as an outdoor distribution hall and a space for meeting and contemplation of the surrounding and eternal landscape," the team said.

When choosing the building's materials, the team opted for low- or no-maintenance options, to minimise the project's operational energy.

Facades are clad in corrugated metal sheets, and plywood was used abundantly within the house.

Discarded sheep wool was used for insulation, making use of a local product. The team said 4,000 tons of sheep wool are discarded yearly in the province of Buenos Aries.

The insulation thickness varies around the house, depending upon the orientation to the sun.

"The house was used as a case study to implement the first insulating blankets made from discarded wool from this particular region, which is usually burnt," the team said.

"Now, the house is measured every season to test the evolution of the material, which is showing great performance."

Glazing was minimised in certain areas, yet the home remains filled with natural light. Above the bathroom and the main corridor, the team introduced skylights to reduce reliance on artificial light.

All rooms feature cross-ventilation and sun protection on windows, including the attic, where special vents provide ventilation during warm months.

Other projects involving sheep wool include an English sauna by Architects Holiday that has red shingles and insulation made of recycled plastic and wool, and a Chilean house by Team Citic that consists of three gabled volumes with sheep wool insulation.

The photography is by Fernando Schapochnik.

Project credits:

Architect: DUB Arquitectura
Architect in charge: Angie Dub
Collaborators: Belén Butler, Tabatha Walter

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Argentinian studio BHY Arquitectos has renovated a 1980s house in Buenos Aires, adding a two-storey, gabled greenhouse to the compact residence.

Known as Casa Wiz, the 205-square metre (2,206-square foot) home is located on a grassy lot in Campo Chico, Argentina.

Bracamonte Hajnal Yerba Arquitectos (BHY Arquitectos) completed the renovation in 2024 to extend the crisp lines and angles of the once bright-red house.

"We wanted the intervention to be precise and contrasting but at the same time to be very respectful of what exists, and to generate a blurred boundary between the old and the new," the team told Dezeen.

"The geometry, materiality and drawing of the existing roof were the source of inspiration to design the new architecture."

The team expanded the upper floor by replicating the roofline with a garden terrace surrounded by a greenhouse form constructed of a lightweight metal frame wrapped in a translucent screen of open mesh that supports vines.

The greenhouse addition faces the street, creating a layer of privacy for the interior program, allowing the house to "take refuge behind the translucent structure".

With climbing vines, the outer greenhouse wall becomes a "vertical landscape" when viewed from the inside and outside of the structure.

On the other side of the house, the team enclosed an unused terrace with a third gable. This portion was wrapped in white standing seam metal with a round porthole window to provide a sleek juxtaposition to the textured brick of the original house.

Inside, the ground floor was restructured to expand the kitchen with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out to a small patio and rectangular pool, enhancing the connection between the interior and exterior.

A small service space is tucked behind the kitchen.

Across the glazed entry vestibule in the centre of the house is the living room, which has windows looking out either side and is set off the house in a T-shaped plan.

It contains a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor, where the third gable becomes the expanded primary bedroom and private balcony.

The upper level is reserved entirely for the family's private rooms, with two smaller bedrooms that lead out to the terrace in the greenhouse.

Like an inverted treehouse, a delicate metal staircase inside the greenhouse descends to the children's playroom.

"The project tries to respect the language of the existing house but resignifies it, seeking the maximum use of available resources and demolishing as little as possible," the team said.

BHY Arquitecto's signature all-white designs are spread across Buenos Aires. Completed in 2023, Casa Vedia features multiple interior courtyards and patios to maximise an infill lot, and, completed in 2018, Casa Lucia features stacks brick blocks with limited glazing to reduce energy costs.

The photography is by Javier Agustín Rojas.

Project credits:

Project team: Javier Bracamonte, Juia Hajnal, Gonzalo Yerba
Collaborators: Maite Alvarenga, Franco Stinga
Construction company: Construye seco
Landscaping: Ana Pessio

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This space with futuristic "virtual reality" style LED strip lighting was designed by Argentinian firm Estudio Ebras and furniture brand Hause Möbel to be used as both a home and an office.

The temporary Green Home Office project was created for the Casa FOA 2024 architecture and design exhibition in Córdoba, Argentina, inside an under-construction building complex named Pocito.

Estudio Ebras was presented with a windowless space to transform into a flexible environment designed to facilitate both living and working, using furniture from Argentinian brand Hause Möbel.

Entry to the 110-square-metre space was through a low, warmly lit antechamber that offered options to turn left into a compact workspace, or right into the larger central area.

The dark, "immersive" office was panelled with wood veneer squares between strips of LED light that formed a grid across the walls and floor.

"The immersive space features a luminous grid that simulates the grid of virtual reality," said Estudio Ebras. "On one side is a desk, and on the other, a chaise lounge for resting and transporting us to a natural environment in virtual reality."

Reached via a short cork-floored corridor, the living space featured peach, orange and rust hues that created a contrasting desert-like aesthetic.

"Upon entering the central area, a change in scale is perceived due to its dimensions and height," Estudio Ebras said.

In place of windows, the designers worked with a light artist to install illuminated, elongated pill-shaped panels behind translucent floor-to-ceiling curtains.

The light panels displayed sunset colours, while soil and dried plants ran around the perimeter to evoke "a mountainous, wild, and arid landscape typical of the area".

Curved-edge surfaces flowed into one another, such as a kitchen counter that swooped down from one wall and extended along another.

In the centre of the room was a large table that could be used for either dining or meetings, accompanied by four orange chairs on castors.

Overhead, a rough-textured fixture housed concentric rings of LEDs that gradually ascended inside the structure.

At the end of the room, a bench was suspended from the ceiling, shaped to frame the trio of "window" lights behind.

A separate space for quiet contemplation or taking video calls was tucked behind the entry corridor wall and closed off by sliding glass panels.

This small room was lined with cork and furnished with a purple two-seater sofa. "The acoustic box allows for privacy to make a call, work with a laptop, or, within a home-like setting, provides recreational space," said Estudio Ebras.

As the project's name suggests, it was designed with sustainability in mind, and a carbon footprint analysis was conducted throughout the design, exhibition and dismantling processes.

To offset the installation's footprint, native trees were planted in nearby Cerro Champaquí with the help of local nonprofit organization Fundación Sembradores de Agua.

Recently completed projects in Córdoba include a house with weathering steel screens, a home lifted above a sloped site and  an office building wrapped in perforated metal.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Casa FOA 2024 took place 3 May to 2 June 2024 in Córdoba. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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A screen made of dense weathering steel slats shades the facade of a Córdoba, Argentina house expanded over the last fifteen years by Argentinian architect Christian Schlatter.

Originally started in 2008, the final stage of Casa MC, a 230-square metre (2,476-square foot) infill residence, was completed in 2023.

Architect Christian Schlatter designed the house to showcase the exchange between the interior and the public square directly in front of the house where the clients' children play.

The main challenge for the design was to link the two areas through sight lines without compromising the privacy of the home or keeping sunlight from illuminating the interior of the small plot.

The ground floor is open to the square through a large floor-to-ceiling window in the living room, which can be adjusted with blinds that regulate both light and privacy.

The interior spaces are set at an angle off of the rectilinear perimeter walls, shaping the living, dining, kitchen and staircase into a trapezoid.

The kitchen and dining room are separated from the main level with a set of sliding glass doors with wooden frames. A second metal-frame set of glass doors open to the backyard.

The main dividing wall splits the property into roughly equal halves: the compact family areas and an incongruent garage and backyard with a pool.

Up the floating concrete stairs – lit from above by a skylight – the private areas form a slanted L-shaped level with the main ensuite located at the back of the property and three smaller rooms aligned along the front facade.

Off the front facade, weathering steel slats protect a balcony.

The metal skin appears to change based on angle, "sieving the entry of light and generating different degrees of illumination during different times of the day and during different seasons," the team said.

"According to how the sun illuminates the metallic skin, the projected shadows compose different plots. During the night the lighting was arranged so that metallic skin to "parasol mode" projected the shadows thrown on the facade."

In addition to changing based on perspective, light, shadow and season, the screen serves as a form of solar control, reducing the energy consumption, which is aided by solar panels.

On the interior, the white walls and neutral-coloured flooring are warmed by kiri and oak wooden accents. The wood is used as a ceiling feature in the kitchen, furniture and cabinetry, as well as the material for the entry and garage doors on the exterior.

The wood accent reappears in the backyard in the form of a large sliding cover for the pool, offset by the green of the turfed lawn.

Other projects recently completed in Córdoba include a glazed home lifted on a hilltop by Malina Zayat and an office building wrapped in metal screens by Santiago Viale and Juan Manuel Juarez.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:
Architect: Arq. Christian Schlatter
Construction: ACS.A.

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Local architect Julio Sanchez Arimayn has converted an industrial warehouse building into creative studios interspersed throughout two stories and punctuated by mezzanines in Buenos Aires.

Called Espinosa Estudios, the 900-square-metre building contains seven studio spaces, cooking areas, a porch, restrooms and a cafe to host creative programming.

"It was a warehouse, with a series of buildings inside," said Arimayn's team. "A house upfront converted into offices, a chorizo house in the centre, a large industrial mezzanine – a concrete structure without much meaning. It was a great sum of moments and patched needs, all under a large tin roof."

On the ground level, Arimayn placed studio spaces of increasing size along one side of the building, creating an internal "street" that runs alongside them.

The building's entrance lies at the beginning of the ground-level hallway, while a cafe was placed directly to its side. Bathrooms and kitchens are located at the centre of both floors and surround a staircase.

"All the workspaces are linked to this street, allowing and encouraging interaction, the possibility of crossover, collaboration," said the team.

This hallway runs the interior length of the building and is semi-covered by second-floor openings, mezzanines and a tile-floor porch located at the centre of the building.

The largest of the ground-level spaces sits at the end of the building and is double-height, exposed to the building's curving roof.

In the same space, a white insertion creates a gallery or stage space, further denoted by curved corners that hit the otherwise concrete floor.

On the first floor, the creative spaces are much larger and connect to the building's open-air porch, or "lung".

"A porch on the first floor generates a common outdoor space and functions as the lung of the project," said the team.

The interior is lined with translucent polycarbonate panels, and has double-height spaces and openings so that it receives natural light from the large, glazed openings in the domed roof.

Some openings and gaps throughout the first floor connect directly to the outdoors.

Arimayn used concrete, galvanized steel and white-washed walls to make up the majority of the interior, while textural details were interspersed throughout.

"[The materials] were selected to create the large surfaces we needed without the need for external suppliers, but rather could be manufactured on-site," said Arimayn. "This is how we were able to lower construction costs considerably."

Other material details include a small wall section covered in fluted concrete, white-washed brick, French doors, and one studio topped with lighting scattered along metal strips.

"The construction of Espinosa was a process of experimentation, of tests in the place, of material search," said the team. "There is a balance between the old-existing-murario, and the new: lightweight – industrialized space closures and dividers."

Espinosa Estudios will be used for private studios and co-working, as well as public gallery shows and other events.

"In Espinosa, there is an air of simplicity, rationality and truth of materials. There is no ornament. It's like a blank sheet for things to happen," said the team.

Julia Sanchez Arimayn is a Buenos-Aires-based architect who studied and worked at the University of Buenos Aires. After twenty years of experience working in the construction industry, he has since opened an eponymous studio. Espinosa Estudios is his first project.

Other recently completed projects around Buenos Aires include a 1980s home conversion lined with second-floor ribbon windows by Daniel Canda and a small bookstore lined with textured concrete walls.

The photography is by Fernando Schapochnik.

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Argentinian architect Malvina Zayat has completed a white home for herself and her family that is lifted above a sloped site and enters into "an intimate dialogue with the sky and clouds".

The residence sits within a native forest in the town of Salsipuedes, which lies about 30 kilometers from the city of Córdoba.

Zayat – founder of the local firm Malvina Zayat Architecture Studio – lives there with her husband and two children.

Accessed via a cobblestone street, the home is perched on a hilly property with extensive views of the landscape. The building is elevated and rendered in white, helping "establish an intimate dialogue with the sky and clouds".

"Located in the central sector of the land, with its long side facing north, it appears as a white prism, levitating over the mountain and getting lost in the clouds," said the architectural studio.

Rectangular in plan, the home is lifted up by steel supports. On the west end, the building hovers 3.5 metres above a sheltered parking area.

Most of the structural system consists of prefabricated metal parts that were assembled on-site.

The foundation and floor slab are made of concrete – a decision informed by "the need to accumulate heat in the mass of the slab when the winter sun enters the interior space from the north".

Facades consist of white-painted metal and stretches of glass. The front elevation has a long deck, or gallery, lined with folding metal screens.

"A system of folding panels attenuates the winds in the gallery and filters the entry of sun from the west in summer," the team said.

"At the same time, it guarantees the security of the home when its users are not there."

From the parking area, a hanging staircase takes visitors upward to the deck. From here, one enters the home through a sliding wooden door.

The overall entry sequence is "an experience that begins in contact with the earth and ends in the air".

Inside, one finds a linear plan with a communal space at one end of the home and a private area with two bedrooms occupying the other.

Between the two zones is a service island that is vented and illuminated from above. Water is provided by rainwater that is stored in cisterns below the house.

The entire south side of the interior is lined with a storage unit that meets functional needs while also adding thickness to the building envelope. The north and west sides open up to the exterior, providing a sense of expansion.

The restrained material palette includes concrete flooring with a vinyl finish and Brazilian granite for the kitchen countertops. Eucalyptus plywood was used for the walls, ceilings, doors and built-in furniture.

"The incidence of light on the vermillion-coloured wood panelling generates a scenography spatial experience that culminates in the heart of the home: the social area, in total communion with the mountains," the team said.

Córdoba is the capital of the Argentinian province of the same name. Other projects in the region include an isolated house by Nicolás Barrionuevo and Juan Villanueva that features operable wooden screens and a concrete and stone house by Nanzer + Vitas that is meant to resemble a medieval village.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:

Architect: Malvina Zayat Architecture Studio
Design team: Malvina Zayat, Natalia Lucía Ruiz Venicio
Structural calculation: Edgar Moran

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Local architecture studio Daniel Canda & Asociados has renovated a 1980s country club residence in Argentina, opening up the interior and wrapping the second floor in ribbon windows.

Located in the Los Cardales suburbs outside of Buenos Aires, Cabin 192 was originally built by architect Horacio Iovine in the early 1980s.

Faced between updating an existing structure or building anew for a client, Canda & Associados (C&A) ultimately chose to renovate.

"If we are in a consolidated urban environment, the answer is simpler, but if 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," said the studio.

"As architects, we must rethink the impact of replacing a piece where it can be re-functionalized. And that decision comes before the project."

The team kept much of the bottom half of the house intact, removing interior walls and flattening its original gabled roof. A service tower, which contains a water tank, was also kept intact and rises next to the entrance of the house.

An austere palette of grey brick was used to clad the exterior walls, while concrete floors and light wood cabinetry were used in the interior, paired with pops of red.

According to the team, the building's surrounding landscape largely informed decisions around the renovation.

"The environment of ancient trees and distant neighbours inspired the concept of a suspended glass box that generates a play of reflections," said the team.

"[We tried] to keep a simple home, with a certain degree of austerity and in broad contact with nature. The Anglo-Saxon word Cabin perfectly fits that definition, so it was named Cabin 192."

On the first floor, the interior was organized around a single concrete-clad central support "core" that encloses a bathroom. A desk and built-in storage wrap around this core.

Directly opposite, an exposed staircase sits atop an elevated concrete foundation, with a planter embedded into its body and a small storage bench on top.

These two volumes bisect the first floor, and on either side sits the kitchen and living room and the dining area and fireplace.

A glass-enclosed sunroom, furnished with low-lying grey furniture, sits behind the staircase and runs almost the entire length of the space

The second floor is similarly divided; a central support volume that encloses two bathrooms sits from across the staircases's top-floor landing.

Large wooden storage units placed perpendicularly to the staircase and bathrooms further divide the second floor into four rooms, with three populated with bedrooms and the fourth, a top-floor living area.

The building's original gable roof was flattened to create more space for the upper-floor program, which also allowed the studio to insert ribbon windows completely around its perimeter.

Downstairs, new sliding glass doors lead to a pool area and patio, while the structure's original square windows were kept intact on the facade.

Other recent residential projects built in Argentina include a co-op wrapped in aluminium and infill house with multiple courtyards in Buenos Aires.

The photography is by Albano García

Project credits:

Project team:Bruno Rodini, Leonardo Celiz, architects
Structural project: Cesar Tocker
Electrical contractor: Horacio Ferrando
Sanitary contractor: SD
Thermomechanics contractor: BP Instalaciones
Façade engineering: Lerin
Landscape: Vertec

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Local architects Santiago Viale and Juan Manuel Juarez have wrapped the offices of an animal feed plant in Córdoba with a perforated metal screen.

The 18,040 square foot (1,676 square metre) administrative building is part of a larger 199,000 square foot (18,460 square metre) industrial complex for Biofarma, which produces feed for animals including poultry, swine and cattle.

Santiago Viale and Juan Manuel Juarez organized offices, meeting rooms, printing areas and lounge areas across two rectangular floors, punctuated by two internal courtyards at the centre.

The courtyards, along with wood-clad staircases at either end of the building, create collaborative and interactive spaces for employees across the two levels, according to the team.

The office and meeting spaces were distributed along the internal perimeter, with one side abutting floor-to-ceiling windows that span the exterior and the other, a central passageway.

Glass partitions enclose several office spaces, while others were left open.

"The company managers' offices are distributed around a double-height space that connects with a hierarchized entrance on the ground floor, reinforcing the sense of institutional identity," said the team.

Visitors enter the building's lobby through a concrete vestibule that extends out from underneath a metal screen enclosing the exterior.

A small auditorium sits next to the lobby, clad in wooden panelling with integrated lighting running through its ceiling and walls. Large windows extend along its side.

Lounge areas and a coffee break space provide additional gathering spaces on the second floor, while a dining area opens onto a roof terrace.

Reinforced concrete was used for the building's structure, which was then wrapped in pre-painted grey galvanized expanded metal sheet skin.

A gap of 27 inches (70 centimetres) sits between the metallic screen and the building's exterior to create sun protection.

"This skin plays a significant role in the project, as it forms an intermediate shaded space between the glass closure and the exterior, reducing direct sunlight radiation and, consequently, the building's energy consumption," said the team.

Moveable panels were also integrated into the cage-like wrapping, while integrated vertical blinds provide further sun protection for inhabitants.

"It also gives the building the language and institutional character of the company," said the team.

Two large metal-framed openings were placed on either side of the building, which open onto the outdoor dining area.

A metal "Biofarma" sign was also placed on the exterior.

Other projects recently completed in Córdoba include a black concrete house by AR Arquitectos and two modular cabins by Set Ideas.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:
Collaborators: Salvador Viale, Tito Maximiliano Gonza, Francisco Gavilán, Nicolás Macasso, Santiago Viale Beviglia, Rocío Cornacchione, Emiliano Pino, Nicolás Borra, Lourdes Bruno, Fiama Ríos, Ricardo Cortesse, Eduardo Storaccio, Sonja Czeranski, Juan Macías
Deployed metal: ETC.
Integral front: Abest
Curtains: Suquía Curtains
Vinyl floor: Julia Sol
Auditorium Seats: Rassegna

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Local architecture studio Moroni Ciovini and designer Ana Montero have preserved the exposed layers of concrete wall for this bookstore and café in Buenos Aires.

At just 247 square feet (23 square metres), Medio Pan cafe is just large enough to fit seating, a bar and bookshelves, which are located at the back and front of the store.

For the shop's interior, Moroni Ciovini (M++C) and Montero created a furniture unit of multilaminate guatambú wood that makes up the shop's seating, bar and posterior bookshelf.

A narrow bench runs along the length of the shop, facing the bar, so that visitors can get a closer look at the barista's work, according to the team.

Storage was integrated below the bench, while small wooden armrests were placed periodically and double as side tables.

The seating runs directly into the bookshelf, which expands over the entrance to storage space at the back of the store. A chainlink fence extends from the top of the bookshelf to meet the ceiling.

On the opposite side of the bookshelf, a wider bench takes up the corner, providing a nook for visitors to more "calmly" enjoy a book.

The cafe bar takes up the remaining space, with its front abutting the shop's facade to double as a window counter.

The team created folding glass doors for the storefront, which can be arranged in a variety of positions. Small shelves were affixed to the doors, which display a changing parade of books held down by neon green elastic and small wooden pins.

According to the team, the folding doors were created to evoke newsstands found throughout Buenos Aires.

The space was completed with soft green highlights, found in backsplash tile, cushioning and pillows that line the wooden seating, a curtain at the back of the store and Formica countertops.

The layers and patterns of the textured concrete walls were kept largely preserved and covered with a transparent coating to display the space's previous uses, while the team also decided to keep the original granite tile as a nod to the building's history.

Moroni Ciovini is a Buenos Aires and Valencia-based architecture studio founded by Christian Moroni and Belén Ciovini.

Elsewhere in Buenos Aires, designer Florencia Rissotti recently renovated a warehouse to host a fabric store and architects Julio Oropel and Jose Luis Zacarias Otiñano created a bio-art installation focused on fungi.

The photography is by Fernando Schapochnik

Project credits:

Architecture: Moroni++Ciovini, Ana Montero
Construction: Estudio KO

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Local architect Florencia Rissotti has converted a warehouse into a textile shop in Buenos Aires, using fabric dividers to organise the space.

To house a retail location for fabric shop Tienda Mayor, Rissotti integrated textiles in several ways, lining the store with samples, draping colourful patches over a staircase and using curtains to conceal and create space.

The interior is divided into two floors, with a mezzanine above used for storage and office space, and the store's retail space and lounge areas below.

Cream-coloured curtains hang underneath the mezzanine and above to hide storage areas and create meeting spaces.

"The space was assembled using the raw material of the place: fabric," said the studio. "A series of curtains divide, set up a meeting room, hide shelves with orders and cover the storage area."

Along the length of a wall, large material samples are draped from hooks, which will "mutate" over time as the catalogue changes.

Similarly, fabric samples of various sizes were draped over the railings of a staircase that leads to the mezzanine, in part as a permanent installation and to display the shop's selections.

"The ladder device was intended as an exhibition element, from which velvet falls and sews the two levels (the totem) together," said the studio. "This ladder hanger is designed as an internal display window, where the selection/palette can be changed according to the season."

Various creme tones dominate the space, with colour integrated from fabric samples and bright seating running in a straight line parallel to the fabric samples.

Alamo wood desks and large coffee tables were crafted for the space.

Outside, a garden area contains a semi-circle metal bench and simple plantings.

Florencia Rissotti is a Buenos Aires-based architect who focuses on interiors and residential architecture.

Elsewhere in Buenos Aires, La Base Studio recently created a delicate wooden privacy screen for a 1970s home renovation and architects Julio Oropel and Jose Luis Zacarias Otiñano created a bio-art installation focused on fungi.

The photography is by Fernando Schapochnik.

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A hundred mushroom-shaped stools encircle an incubator for growing different fungi species as part of this bio-art installation in Buenos Aires.

The Fungi Kingdom – Urban Farm installation was created by architects Julio Oropel and Jose Luis Zacarias Otiñano inside the historic Tiro Federal Argentino, built in 1937.

Responding to the rationalist stone architecture of the building's Central Hall, particularly its circular ceiling feature, the designers laid out a fungi-themed display comprising multiple connected elements.

In the centre, directly below the ceiling feature, a thick fluted column supports an elevated disk in which a variety of mushrooms grow.

"Black Pearl species, pink and golden Gargoyles, Pioppino and Ganoderma Lucidum grow inside the circular aerial structure in an environment governed by light and moisture," said the architects.

The sides of the disk are transparent so that visitors can peer inside, and the lighting within the structure emits a soft glow.

Branching from the central tower across the granite floor are white metal tendrils that represent mushroom mycelium – the connective tissue through which the organisms feed, communicate and reproduce.

From each of these lines sprout identical white concrete Yembé stools that resemble minimalist toadstools, forming five concentric rings around the room.

Together, the series of stools create "a space for contemplation" to consider how human beings are connected to the objects and the spaces that surround us, according to the architects.

"[The project] is a conceptual statement dealing with ecological and evolutionary thinking about life, living beings and the fungi kingdom," they said. "It aims to explore a world where human activity, art, culture and action are mutually dependent and thereby benefiting all ecosystems health."

Beside a nearby staircase, more metal plates form a square upon which four larger, white concrete podiums are placed at each corner.

These tables display organic sculptures by Florencia Echevarria, with delicate forms that mimic fungal growths.

Once the exhibition ends, the central metal installation will be moved to a children's playground.

Many designers have used fungi in some form in their work – from ideas for packaging and fashion, to furniture and even architecture.

The benefits of mycelium as a strong, biodegradable material with multiple potential applications continue to be explored, and Oropel and Zacarias Otiñano see this project as an extension of that work.

"We, designers, argue and redefine the human environment ecology," said the duo. "The role performed by bio-art is paramount in this transition to post-Anthropocene era, wherein man is no longer the centre but dwells in symbiosis with nature, culture and technology."

The photography is by Adela Aldama.

Fungi Kingdom – Urban Farm was created for the 39th edition of the Casa FOA architecture and design exhibition, which ran from 15 September to 16 October 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Local architecture firm La Base Studio has renovated a glass and concrete home, wrapping it in a delicate privacy and shading screen on a lush site in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Known as Casa Mendoza, the 2,150-square foot (200-square metre) residence was completed in 2022 on a 3,350-square foot (330-square metre) lot at the connection of an urban grid and private neighbourhood.

The site falls at an intersection of a busy cosmopolitan street and an elevated railway infrastructure where the roads dead end into green slopes. The location exposes the home to onlookers, so the design responds to views differently between the levels.

The home was first constructed in the mid-1970s by a civil engineer, and La Base Studio demolished part of it for its current iteration.

Originally enclosed in traditional masonry walls, the team stripped the house back to its structure and preserved only the reinforced concrete slabs, columns, and beams.

The existing service space was also demolished and rebuilt underground – within a 430-square-foot (40-square metre) subterranean library and study.

The underground storey also features a half-level patio with mirror-coated walls that reflect the Japanese cherry tree and ferns above.

The ground floor – open to the garden with 360-degrees of floor-to-ceiling glazing – contains the entry, kitchen, dining space, and living room in different quadrants.

The sliding glass doors open to the garden and pool deck, blurring the interior and exterior relationship.

"These decisions reinforce the desire to convert this space into a large semi-covered space, almost as a gallery, where the true visual and physical limits are the wooden planks of the fence or the walls vegetated by native species," the studio told Dezeen.

The kitchen walls float like wooden objects in the space, holding up marble counters and sink. Speckled granite floors are juxtaposed by white ceilings.

"All materials are shown in raw finish, without coatings or paints."

A delicate, suspended staircase with open wooden treads rises to the upper level, which prioritizes privacy and seclusion in an environment that protects from sight and sound.

A lounge space comprises half of the floor plate, while three bedrooms and a bathroom are stacked on the other side.

Set in from the perimeter of the house, the upper story has a wraparound patio that serves as a transitional space with a light wood, lattice-like screen.

"It is an abstraction of the context, an idealisation of nature, a contained universe," the team said. "Almost like a nest or a basket, which allows sunlight and wind to pass through, but also protects from direct contact with the surroundings."

The bedrooms are housed in a mid-toned wooden box.

They pass from the lounge space to the patio that ends in a white tiled wall that bounces light back into the space.

Residents can see out of the upper level, but no one can see in, and vegetation planted between the glazed enclosure and the screen helps isolate the house at night.

"The opposition of exposure and protection is the common thread of the entire project."

Other recent renovations in Buenos Aires include a modernist white house by Adamo Faiden and a 1930s brick home by Torrado Arquitectos.

The photography is by Cristóbal Palma.

Project credits:

Architecture: La Base Studio
Collaborators: Ceclia huberman, Sol Barcan, Lilian Kartashian, Camila Moncarz
Furniture: La Base Studio
Landscape: Per Estudio
Equipment: Helmut Muebles, Huup Iluminación, Awanay Rugs
Art: Luna Paiva, Amour Leopard, Michelle Dabul, Nahuel Vacino

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A divider informed by the Microsoft logo and a sculpture made of a single cord of iron in the shape of a chair were among the objects featured at the Mueble Escultura exhibition in Buenos Aires.

Curated by Lucila Garcia de Onrubia and Cinthia Kazez, the Mueble Escultura Vol 2 exhibition featured "sculptures that resemble furniture and furniture that resembles sculptures" created by a host of designers living throughout Argentina in response to an open call.

"We work with the concept of 'mueble escultura', which serves more as a prompt than a theme, and prefer to think of each show as a panorama of contemporary production," curators Rubi and Kazaz told Dezeen.

"We were looking for work that interpreted our prompt in different ways, whether utilitarian, poetic, or conceptual, balancing that blurred line between art and design piece. This selection resulted in a more varied representation of hybrid works by both artists and designers that go beyond sculpture and collectable design."

Displayed in a gallery space at Espinosa Studios in Buenos Aires, the exhibit showcased a variety of different mediums including sculpture, painting and furniture design.

A sculpture by artist Mariano Ullua consisted of the outline of an armchair made with a single cord of wavy iron.

The Al Momento de Sentarse piece was Ullua's attempt to "transcend a medium", as the artist usually works as a painter.

Designer Oke Gomez Llambi (Grupo Bondi) displayed a stocky bench and jagged table made of hollow brick, cement and sand spliced together to form multi-coloured, textured surfaces.

These pieces, called The Relleno Sanitario, try to show how "function follows form", according to Rubi and Kazaz.

Product and furniture designer Franco Chimento created a textured, black shelving system with lines that extend outwards to end in dull points.

Made of wood and covered in coal, the piece nods to the traditional sheath of the Japanese katana sword, an object Chimento's father and grandfather collected as merchant seamen.

Other works include a spider-like aluminium chair with pronounced, mechanical joints created in 2003 by designer Fernando Poggio, ceramic shelves shaped like bows by Catalina Oz and a red, curved aluminium screen by Item informed by the Microsoft Windows logo.

The pieces were displayed along a long, flowing rug, which Rubi and Kazaz designed for the exhibit.

"We aimed, through the exhibition design, to appeal to a design language, using clean lines and a single color, to present both design and art pieces without distinction," said the curators.

"Because this mixing of practices is rarely seen here, we felt it was necessary to present a solid and serious show to legitimize this concept."

Elsewhere, the recent INTRO/LA exhibit brought together work from Los Angeles furniture designers.

The photography is by Felix Niikado.

Mueble Escultura Vol 2. was on show at Espinosa Studios in Buenos Aires from 28 October to 11 November. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Local architecture studio Juan Campanini, Josefina Sposito has concealed an urban apartment building behind a simple aluminium facade in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The six-residence building, known as the Virrey Aviles Street housing, was completed in 2022 using a legal tool called "Fideicomiso," in which groups of middle-class residents can collectively invest in the development of small-scale buildings for homeownership in the often-unattainable housing market.

Juan Campanini, Josefina Sposito helped the residents purchase the typical 8.66-metre-wide parcel and then designed and constructed the 450- 450-square-metre building.

"In the context of Argentina's unstable financial system and the lack of long-term bank loans or large-scale public investments, this alternative system allowed us to face the owners' necessities while participating in every stage of the process," the studio said.

Located in the residential neighbourhood of Colegiales, the building features a two-metre-high wall along the street that folds up into a garage door for parking under the raised apartments.

Set 1.5 metres behind the property line, the building is raised on light-blue steel H-shaped columns. The facade is composed of corrugated aluminium with a silver anodized finish that is commonly used in roof cladding. The homogeneous surface is punctuated by 12 identical rectangular windows arranged in a grid.

"When seen from the site, its minimum thickness reveals its superficial behavior, performing as a falling veil that covers the building's front," the studio said. "In this way, the building creates a unified plain image towards the city, refusing to reveal any interior organization."

The open-plan ground floor contains a small concrete volume for the elevator, basement stairs and ductwork.

The rear edge of the property holds two small planted gardens divided by a concrete stair with a thin, white metal railing that rises the entire height of the building.

On each upper level, the stairs climb to an open-air landing in front of the mirrored elevator wall. The landing transitions through a blue metal gate to a small private terrace for each residence.

Each floor holds two studio apartments, which are balanced symmetrically across a central core space that is pulled three metres back from the building's edge.

"Hosting the unit's bathroom, kitchen and wardrobe, this condensed programmatic piece is detached from the building front, preventing it from being seen through the windows," the studio said.

The unit interiors are simple with polished concrete floors, rough concrete ceilings and flat white walls. Light filters into the units through two large windows that look out to the urban landscape beyond.

Atop the housing are two large roof terraces that are pulled back from the building's edge by a garden.

"From the height, the neighborhood's landscape emerges, and the project stands as a single part of the heterogeneous landscape of the city," the studio said.

Using a similar screening strategy, Adamo-Faiden employed garden balconies and mesh screens to provide privacy in the units of this apartment tower in Buenos Aires. Also, BHY Arquitectos created a similarly understated facade for an infill house in the city.

The photography is by Javier Agustín Rojas.

Project credits:

Architects: Juan Campanini Josefina Sposito
Project team: Julia Yabkowski, Valentina Lucardi
General contractor: Eminco Patagonia S.A.

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Local studio Atelier Industrial has created a minimalist office with walls made from polycarbonate panels within an existing warehouse in San Rafael, Argentina.

The studio placed the small, 67-square-metre office space within an area of an industrial warehouse that is part of a winery in the city.

Called Atelier Cuadro Benegas, it sits on top of a platform in a double-height space with a vaulted metal ceiling and brick walls. Because of the small area on top of the built-in storage platform, the studio opted for an approach that centred on what it called an "aesthetic of the essential".

The walls of the office are made from polycarbonate that allows light to enter but is also opaque enough to blur the activity within the warehouse.

Its framing is relatively simple, with an array of laminated timber beams holding up a flat ceiling with exposed wooden rafters. A second floor made from plywood was installed on top of the platform.

The rafters of the office were meant to resemble formally the space of the warehouse itself, and the newbuild utilises two of the white-painted brick walls of the warehouse for its walls, which were left exposed for one side of the structure.

"Light and subtle, the industrial character of the surfaces is confused thanks to the diffuse conditions generated by the polycarbonate panels," said Atelier Industrial.

"Its architectural suitability [is] both discreet and basic."

"The monotonous system of thirteen columns and ten beams generates from this space a mirror of its own environment, making this pavilion transmit light, receive it, allowing itself to be penetrated by it, so as to become luminous itself."

A narrow step ladder leads up the the platform, and workers can enter the polycarbonate space through a door that has double hinges to allow for flexibility in the small space.

Inside, a row of desks lines the outside-facing brick wall and operable windows allow for light and ventilation.

At the centre of the space are tables for sharing tasks, while at the far end, a row of bookshelves has been placed against the brick wall, framing a window that faces another room in the warehouse.

The studio noted that the design was chosen because it can easily assembled and disassembled.

Overall, the design was established to allow for the space to function independently, while still being a part of the warehouse and the winery complex in general.

Other projects that implant smaller volumes within warehouse spaces include a flat in Melbourne within a former chocolate factory.

Recently, Tokyo studio Arii Irie Architects created a warehouse lined with polycarbonate panels that doubles as a residence.

The photography is by Luis Abba.

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The latest edition of our Dezeen Debate newsletter features Cristóbal Palma photographs of a Buenos Aires slum before its redevelopment. Subscribe to Dezeen Debate now.

Chilean photographer Palma photographed a slum in Buenos Aires before a project to redevelop the area has begun. Palma's images of the community, which is home to more than 40,000 residents, showcased the ad-hoc buildings and dense streetscapes.

Commenters were intrigued, with one labelling Palma's work "architectural photography at its very best". Another described the photographic documentation as an "excellent and ambitious" project.

Other stories in this week's newsletter that fired up the comments section included an opinion piece that discusses the design profession's role in the "wildfire problem", a grey stucco house in Houston by O'Neill McVoy Architects and a hotel in Rome by Ian Schrager's The Edition group.

Dezeen Debate

Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Debate or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Agenda is sent every Tuesday containing a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.

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As works began to transform the notorious Villa 31 slum into an official Buenos Aires "barrio", Chilean photographer Cristóbal Palma documented its distinct architecture.

Villa 31 is the most well-known "villa miseria" in the Argentinian capital, home to more than 40,000 people including both Argentinian nationals and immigrants from neighbouring countries.

Palma started visiting in 2019 when work was already underway to integrate the neighbourhood into the infrastructure of the city, with sewage systems, running water and connection to the power grid.

His photographs reveal the ad-hoc buildings and dense streetscapes that defined this unplanned part of the city.

"It was unique from other kinds of favelas because the pressure on land was so great," Palma told Dezeen.

"It had a funny kind of metropolitan feel because it was so dense, with up to six or seven storeys of construction. I got the sense that, although it was very poor, there was a lot of pressure to have land there."

Villa 31 has a definitive border, bounded by a highway on one side and a railway line and station on the other.

This fuelled its isolation, despite a location close to the city centre and adjacent to the affluent Recoleta neighbourhood. Since the 1930s, it had developed without any centralised planning or regulation.

As a result, the resident-built homes were built along narrow, unpaved streets. Cables hung overhead, illegally drawing electricity from nearby power lines, while rain caused the streets to fill up with polluted water.

"Some of the structures felt very precarious," Palma said. "It felt like they were about to collapse."

"But it was also a kind of paradigm of what a city could be if there were no cars," he added.

"The way people interacted with public spaces felt, in a way, very sophisticated."

In 2016, the city government started drawing up plans to redevelop Villa 31 and improve conditions for its residents.

The project was not welcomed by all; media coverage revealed that many residents were fearful of the changes, with concerns they would be forced to leave their homes without any eventual benefit.

"It's very politically charged," said Palma, "because so many different people have tried to do different things there over the years".

The scheme, funded by the city government, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, has already transformed the newly renamed Barrio 31, with more changes still to come.

As well as paved roads, sewage and power, the neighbourhood now has three schools and a bank, and is served by buses for the first time. Residents can also get mortgages to buy their homes.

Palma felt it was important to create a record of how things were before redevelopment began, offering insight into what life was like for the residents of this neighbourhood.

"In Latin America, these kinds of favelas are usually on the periphery; you don't get to see them unless you go there. But this one was so very present," he said.

His photos show buildings rising up around the highway flyover, made from an assortment of different materials, while others show rooftops covered with materials, washing lines, water tanks and paddling pools.

He also captured portraits of some residents within their homes.

"From the outside, it looked very homogeneous," he said. "But once I went in, I noticed all of these different sub-neighbourhoods, some more affluent and some more precarious."

"It was so dramatic with the highway going through," he continued. "Some people could actually touch the highway from their bedrooms."

Another thing the photographer observed was the lack of nature within the neighbourhood, besides the occasional tree. "It was a big contrast with the rest of the city," he said.

Palma is one of the judges of this year's Dezeen Awards. He has run his own photography studio, Estudio Palma, since 2008 and is one of the leading architectural photographers in Latin America.

He is currently showing four large-scale prints from the Villa 31 series in an exhibition at Galería Gallo, which is part of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago.

The exhibition Construcción Villa 31 is on show at Galería Gallo from 10 August to 4 October. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Local studio BHY Arquitectos has completed an all-white infill house with painted brick on a narrow lot in Buenos Aires, Argentina that features multiple courtyards and patios.

BHY Arquitectos completed Casa Vedia in 2023, maximizing a 138-square metre (1500-square foot) lot with a house that measures 240 square metres.

Located in the Nuñez neighbourhood, the project sits between two party walls and is only 16 metres deep, so the team needed to build up. However, a double-sloped roof diminishes the scale and helps the three-story house fit into the residential environment.

"The main aspiration was to integrate the interior spaces with the exterior in a very small lot, optimizing the quality of the interior spaces," Javier Bracamonte told Dezeen.

In addition to painted brick, the exterior has all-white details, which creates a unified look for the street-facing facade.

Also in white are the foldable, perforated sheet metal lattices that provide security and projection on top of the DVH thermal glass windows.

On the street front, a white access gate is made of folded sheet metal, creating a sawtooth texture along the sidewalk. A small garage holds the remainder of the street front.

Inside, the house is organized around two courtyards and two patios.

An entry courtyard provides access to the public ground floor, where a living room, dining room and kitchen look out to a second glazed courtyard that is located diagonally across the lot.

The second floor – which follows the interior-exterior profile of the lower level – contains the primary suite and two secondary bedrooms, with Juliet balconies and thin metal railings that overlook the courtyards.

The top floor contains a small flexible space that connects two patios, accesible through sliding glass doors.

"The light roof ends with a strong slope towards the front, giving scale to the access patio," the studio said.

The slope also creates a double-height space that opens the second-floor office space to the top level.

The arrangement of the courtyards and patios allows for cross ventilation throughout the house and brings light all the way through the interior spaces.

For the interior materials, the studio said that it used a "synthetic" approach.

"The flooring of the entire house, both inside and outside, is made of natural stone to maximize the connection."

Meanwhile the kitchen features natural oak veneered wood to give the house warmth and provide relief from the white walls and fixtures.

The studio was founded in 2016 by architects Javier Bracamonte, Julia Hajnal and Gonzalo Yerba.

In a similar all-white house in Buenos Aires, studio Colle-Croce used steel to span the lot and open as much interior space to the exterior, expanding the residents' space in a compact infill lot.

The photography is by Javier Agustín Rojas.

Project credits:

Designers: Javier Bracamonte, Julia Hajnal, Gonzalo Yerba
Builder: Favio Teti

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Since February, searches for brick architecture have skyrocketed on Pinterest. The material is particularly popular in South America. We round up eight projects from the continent featured on our bricks board.

Materials such as brick and concrete are commonly used in South America, due to their wide availability and resistance to harsh climates.

Studios including Plan:b Arquitectos and Bloco Arquitetos have used brick in their projects to control temperature and humidity in countries with tropical and subtropical climates, such as Colombia and Brazil.

Scroll down to see eight South American projects that feature bricks from our Pinterest and browse our popular bricks board to see more.

Sítio Rio Acima, Brazil, by Denis Joelsons

Brazilian architect Denis Joelsons completed this revamp of a residential complex near São Paulo, Brazil.

Joelsons aimed to conserve the brick forms of the house, which has been home to the same family for over forty years.

The studio renovated and extended the home's primary building, adding a valued ceiling and arch clerestory window. It also replaced a run-down wooden caretaker's house and constructed a new pool kiosk.

Find out more about Sítio Rio Acima ›

The Intermediate House, Paraguay, by Equipo de Arquitectura

The Intermediate House by Paraguay studio Equpo de Arquitectura is made up of two blocks that open to a courtyard.

The studio used local materials, such as earth and wood, to create an open space that would feel connected to nature. Manually pressed, uncooked dirt bricks were used for the walls and ceilings in the home.

Find out more about The Intermediate House ›

House 50 50, Argentina, by Celula Urbana

Celula Urbana designed this home for a site surrounded by trees and wild plants. Red bricks form the walls, while wood was used for the underside of the property's roof.

The studio topped the home with a flat roof to provide residents with shade whilst still having a view of the landscape. The house was given its name due to its half-indoor, half-outdoor design.

Find out more about House 50 50 ›

House in La Siria, Colombia, by Plan:b Arquitectos

House in La Siria by Plan:b Arquitectos is a holiday home located in Colombia and made from brick and concrete.

The studio used perforated concrete blocks throughout the home to make it suitable for Colombia's tropical climate, while its roof was made from local wood.

Find out more about House in La Sirira ›

Casa Monopoli, Argentina, by Fabrizio Pugliese

Argentine architect Fabrizio Pugliese designed this holiday home in Argentina as a weekend home for a family.

The home sits on a concrete slab and is topped with an array of barrel vaults made of local red brick. To build the canopy, bricks were placed on a wooden mould and a layer of concrete was then placed on top.

Find out more about Casa Monopoli ›

The Morrison development, Argentina, by BBOA

Architecture studio BBOA created this residential complex which features white-painted brick walls and angled roofs.

Inside, the homes each have identical floor plans and to mirror the simplicity of their exterior, the studio added white walls, concrete ceilings and floors.

Find out more about the Morrison ›

Casa Vila Rica, Brazil, by Bloco Arquitetos

Bloco Arquitetos designed this Brazilian home to suit its climate, which includes both a dry season and a period of rainfall.

Located on the outskirts of Brasília, the house is comprised of two pavilion-like structures linked by an outdoor path. The studio raised the property on a concrete platform to stop insects and animals from entering.

Find out more about Casa Vila Rica ›

Casa Grid, Brazil, by Bloco Arquitetos

Brazilian studio Bloco Arquitetos was tasked with remodelling and expanding an existing single-storey home to suit its new owners.

Its addition, a concrete structure, features panels of perforated brickwork. The brick panels have patterns that vary in their density depending on the amount of light and privacy required within the interior.

Find out more about Casa Grid ›

Follow Dezeen on Pinterest

Pinterest is one of Dezeen's fastest-growing social media networks with over 1.4 million followers and more than ten million monthly views. Follow our Pinterest to see the latest architecture, interiors and design projects – there are more than four hundred boards to browse and pin from.

Currently, our most popular boards are Architecture and Design.

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Black-stained concrete forms the exterior of this home in the mountains of Córdoba by Argentinian studio AR Arquitectos.

The Black House is located in the small mountain town of La Calera just outside of Córdoba. AR Arquitectos, a local studio, was commissioned by a family to create the 550-square-metres Argentinian home.

"The principal idea was to break with the traditional premises," said the studio. "Our attention was placed on the choice of concrete as the protagonist material in all its senses."

The black-stained concrete used for the exterior walls creates a strong visual impact and gives the house a sense of solidity and permanence.

The two-storey structure is located on a steep slope so the lower floor needed to be partially sunken into the ground.

From the exterior, a set of steps leads down to the main entrance, while cars park down a ramp into a garage that is configured like a breezeway and offers sightlines through the home.

The home's communal areas are combined into an open-concept layout on this lower level. Visitors enter through the centre of the home, which opens out to views of the surrounding mountains through tall, sliding glass walls.

"The ground floor, undermined in the terrain, gives visitors the experience of going through the project and framing the views it suggests," said AR Arquitectos.

"The interior and exterior merge thanks to the permeability that is achieved through large glazed surfaces, with window-doors that connect the interior space with a large gallery, pool, the garden, and the view," the studio added.

A covered area at the back of the house allows visitors to enjoy the outdoors while still enjoying some protection from direct sunlight.

Near the garage, there is a double-height area that contains the staircase, which is made of monolithic wooden treads anchored into the structural concrete wall.

"The staircase is one of the main elements, with the idea of expressing a material's lightness over the robustness of another material, such as black concrete," AR Arquitectos explained.

Upstairs, there are two bedrooms and a home office laid out along a corridor. Each of these spaces enjoys views of the city of Córdoba. Additionally, the primary bedroom opens out onto a terrace.

The materials used for the interiors contrast the black concrete aesthetic of the exterior walls.

AR Arquitectos used a wood named Kiri, also known as Paulownia, for the slatted screens that cover the windows facing the street.

The primary bedroom is entirely lined in wood panelling, including some textured panels that provide some visual interest to the walls.

This species of wood can be stronger than typical pine boards, while also being lighter.

Córdoba is a mountainous area in Argentina. Other projects in the area include a dramatically cantilevered home that is wrapped in wooden slats at its perimeter and a stone house that is meant to look like a ruined medieval town.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte. 

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Architectural studio MAPA has completed Argentina's first Passivhaus-certified residence, a house in the San Fernando Delta that is lifted on stilts to accommodate periodic flooding.

Named House in the Delta, the three-bedroom home on the banks of the Paraná Mini river in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area was raised on a timber structure to protect the interiors from floods.

MAPA, a studio with offices in Uruguay and Brazil, described the home as "an amphibious house – built high above the ground to coexist with the periodic flooding on the banks of the Paraná Mini, an earthy river with a gentle flow".

According to the studio, the main access to the site is via this waterway. "The river functions as a street, square and public space," MAPA explained. "[The] community is building a new concept of urbanity in strict connection with nature."

On the longer side of the house, which faces the water, MAPA included a full-length deck that steps down to the surrounding property.

From this side of the wood-framed building, large glass openings give out onto the covered outdoor space. "A system of ordered balconies controls the sunlight and expands the interior spaces towards the surroundings," said MAPA.

Each of the home's bedrooms thus has immediate access to the outdoors, as does the kitchen, living, and dining room, which are at one end of the rectangular structure.

The gridded framework of the structure is visible on the main facade and was built with laminated pine beams, a process that can create large structural framing pieces with reclaimed or waste lumber.

The walls of the house were built of Structural Insulated Panels (SIP), a modular construction material that can offer high levels of insulation and is easily assembled in remote locations.

"The construction, strongly [influenced] by the distance from the means of production of the city, is conceived as a set of prefabricated elements capable of being transported in small boats," explained MAPA.

The project is in final stages of Passivhaus certification. If it is awarded, the project will be the first in Argentina to earn this certification, which recognizes homes built with reduced dependency on artificial heating and cooling.

To meet this certification, MAPA designed an airtight envelope with higher levels of insulation. The studio also took into account the overall footprint of the home, as well as its position relative to the path of the sun.

"The refuge was designed according to a set of passive bioclimatic control strategies, with the aim of consciously inhabiting the landscape," said MAPA.

Other homes in Buenos Aires include an all-white home by Colle-Croce, and a residence by Barrio Villanueva Arquitectos with an impressive cantilever that marks the entrance of the property.

The photography is by Leonardo Finotti.

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Corrugated metal, steel and wood were used for a remote Argentinian retreat that can sleep up to 20 members of a large extended family.

The Rancho Serrano project was completed by Argentinian studio Diaz Marcellino Arquitectos (DMA). It is located in a rocky region of Argentina's Cordoba province, in the Punilla Valley.

"The clients needed a mountain ranch to share with their sons, grandchildren and friends on the shores of the magnificent Yuspe River," said Diaz Marcellino Arquitectos.

"It is a meeting place for three generations, of diverse users in ages, interests and lifestyles," the studio added.

The site's remote location led DMA to use simple materials that could easily be transported to the site and assembled.

The architect studio chose a site at the base of a rocky outcropping that protects the home from the region's strong winds.

In addition to occupying the lightest footprint possible, the home's setting was selected to avoid removing any of the site's existing trees.

Building the home on stilts minimizes root disruption and facilitates drainage on the property, according to the architects.

The exterior of the building is almost entirely clad in corrugated metal, a decision that the architects say was driven by efficiency and cost considerations.

"A rustic and resistant mono-material shell, made of grey sinusoidal sheet metal, blends into the rocky environment and withstands erosion."

A black steel frame forms the 222-square-metre home's primary structure. At its centre, an equilateral triangle branches off into three equal volumes that organise the ground floor plan.

"The space is ordered from that shape, and connects three modules of identical composition," said Diaz Marcellino Arquitectos.

Two of these volumes contain bedrooms, while the third is a covered outdoor space for outdoor meals and grilling.

The central portion of the home contains the kitchen, a long dining table and a large built-in seating area nestled into a nook. This casual seating is formed with futons that offer additional sleeping spaces as needed by the home's many guests.

A partial upstairs floor was built above the main living and dining area and configured as a mezzanine. It is on this level that the majority of the guest beds are located. These are accessed by steel ladders rather than stairs, which saves floor space.

The home's interiors are almost completely lined with wooden planks that are accented by black metal columns, doorways and window frames.

"The interior skin evokes the forest with wood, recreating a warm atmosphere," said Diaz Marcellino Arquitectos.

Other homes recently completed in Cordoba include a home wrapped in wooden slats by Barrionuevo Villanueva Arquitectos, and a wheelchair-accessible home by S_estudio.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:
Architects in charge: Arq Sancho Díaz Malbrán, Arq Andrés Marcellino
Engineering: Arch Fernando Mattiuz, Arch Gustavo Lozano, Ing Edgar Moran
Collaborators: Arch Tania Carranza, Arch Seizen Uehara, Arch Guido Biasotto, Arch Carla Ramos Sagristani, Arch Natalia Silvestro

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Repurposed materials and decadent accents come together in this Buenos Aires restaurant and bar that fits within a historic house overhauled by local studio Hitzig Militello Architects.

Named Moshu Treehouse, the restaurant was built within a two-storey home in the Palermo neighbourhood, near the architecture studio's main office.

The neighbourhood is one of the older areas of the city and has a wealth of existing structures such as this one.

According to the architecture studio, traditionally, these Argentinian houses are built around a courtyard, which becomes the main gathering area for socialising.

Hitzig Militello Architects wanted to replicate this experience by creating a new courtyard area at the entrance that preserves the original facade of the home.

In addition to marking the arrival into the restaurant, this feature is intended to facilitate carry-out orders and outdoor dining.

A local Moshu tree planted in the courtyard gave the project its name.

"Our first major design strategy was to create an access courtyard immediately adjacent to the facade as both a symbol and shock effect," said Hitzig Militello Architects.

This new access courtyard allows visitors to enter the restaurant in two different ways: into the primary courtyard or up a set up stairs to access the second floor.

"This allowed for a new facade with a language of its own, the core idea behind it being the preservation of the old style of the main facade," it added.

Part of the courtyards facade is made up of a grid of windows with wooden shutters, which also cover the entrance to the indoor aspect of the restaurant. These are operable and can be opened up to capture the breeze, or closed in bad weather.

They are slightly angled and offset from one another, creating a dynamic and irregular composition.

The restaurant itself is laid out on two levels, with a cocktail bar upstairs and a terrace at the back of the building. The interiors preserve many of the raw finishes from the existing home.

"The interior architecture language is one of vernacular composition of the typical demolished industrial style," they explained. "Surrounding them is a run-down, abandoned house where the dry vegetation has taken over," they added.

Hitzig Militello Architects also added some playful features to the interiors, such as accent walls made of different sizes of tubes that form an archway.

The ground floor contains a bar, and a variety of dining rooms set up inside or within small courtyards exposed to the sky.

In total, the restaurant offers 240 square metres of interior space and 90 square metres uncovered.

Upstairs is a larger bar, which spills out onto a terrace overlooking the front of the building.

An exterior stair leads from this upper patio directly to the street-facing entrance. Depending on the restaurant's hours of operation, the upper floor can be reserved privately for events.

Hitzig Militello Architects was founded in 2006 and also has offices in Miami.

Buenos Aires has seen a number of renovations and additions to its existing building stock. Other examples include a home from the 1930s that underwent a "subtle" renovation by Torrado Arquitectos, and a self-designed office by Studio Nu that is set within a former auto mechanic's shop.

The photography is by Federico Kulekdjian.

Project credits:

Concept design: Arch. Vanik Margossian, Arch. Dolores Gayoso
Construction documents: Arch. Vanik Margossian
Management: Arch. Marcela Bernat, Arch. Vanik Margossian

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Argentinian studio Set Ideas has completed two small cabins in Córdoba that aim to offer high-quality living spaces within a tight footprint.

Encompassing only 40 square metres, the TINY_MOD cabins – which stands for Tiny Module – were completed in 2021. The small, black cabins are located in Córdoba, the capital of the eponymous province where Set Ideas' office is established.

Each of the rectangular buildings has openings in its corrugated metal facade to accommodate sliding doors that open into the main living area.

The bedroom is at one end of the space and is behind a storage wall, which gives it some privacy.

On the other end, the architects included the bathroom and kitchen, grouped together. The remainder of the area is dedicated to the living room and can fit a sofa or dining table.

"We are creating an efficient response to interior spatiality and the use of resources and space, so that with fewer elements, we live better," said Set Ideas.

"Where does the smell of coffee live more intensely? In a large cup of coffee with milk or in a cup of ristretto?"

The interiors are lined with plywood, giving the spaces an intimate and comfortable feeling. Because of their small size, these buildings can be heated with a high-efficiency wood-burning stove.

"The interior space is simple, but the implementation is everything," said Set Ideas.

Outside of one prototype, overhanging panels made up of a steel frame and wooden staves provide shade to the exterior, creating an outdoor seating area almost as large as the interior space itself.

The other prototype is built on a steeper piece of land, so the architects included a metal staircase with a covered landing to provide access to the unit.

"These are two modular works, two houses in particular contexts, with particular situations and with specific designs," the office explained.

"Pre-agreed standards and modulations facilitate the process and the way in they are built and designed," they added. "The proposal from the studio is to industrialize architecture and everything that concerns it."

Set Ideas has applied these principles to larger projects as well. It completed a thorough renovation to a house in Córdoba, extending the original home's living spaces with a steel-and-glass extension at the back of the property.

Other modular designs include a triangular cabin by Atelier Craft and ICI! that is designed for migrants in Paris, and Cosmic ADU, a US startup that claims to have developed a construction process that generates more electricity than it uses.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:

Architects in charge: Arq. Carlos Arias, Arq. Heriberto Martinez, Arq Pedro Ruiz Funes, Arq. Tomas Camuyrano.
Design team: Arq. Tomas Camuyrano, Arq. Clara Maldonado
Engineer: Ing. Lucas Crespi
Landscape: Francisco Pascualini
Interiors: Florencia Negrete – Neo interior

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Baldio Arquitectura has completed a small apartment with light wells and a central tree as part of a residential complex in Córdoba.

The project, named Three Houses and a Carob Tree, is located in Córdoba, the capital of Argentina's eponymous province.

Completed in 2021, it began as a commission for Baldio Arquitectura to design two houses on a lot with a mature carob tree, also called a locust tree.

But the Córdoba-based studio wanted to challenge this brief and attempt to provide a third living unit on the plot. This third unit was built to accommodate the living tree.

"Córdoba suffers from the consequences of the horizontal expansion of urban sprawl, towards the small mountains Northwest of the city," said the studio.

"Our position regarding the commission was from the outset to find a way to densify the lot through the incorporation of a third unit."

All three homes are built within a single volume that is divided into two three-storey houses and a smaller house on the end. Despite their difference in scale, each of the homes counts two bedrooms.

The ground floors of the larger homes are designed to facilitate openness. This level has no columns or walls and can open at either end for cross-ventilation, to park a car, or to set up a large gathering.

"During the pandemic, we were more aware than ever of the need to have this extra flexible space in homes, which can easily become a work area, virtual classes, or simply leisure, a place to escape from the routine," said Baldio Arquitectura.

A compact staircase leads from this space to the living and dining rooms, which are adjacent to a kitchenette. On the upper levels, openings in the floor bring more light to the interiors and offer views of a central yard with greenery in it.

Balconies run along the front of the building too, which are partially enclosed by a white mesh screen facing the street. Along with the courtyards and their operable windows, this feature allows the living spaces to be cross-ventilated in the hot summer months.

"There was a lot of thought about sustainability in this project. We understand it not as the use of complex technology for energy savings, but as the incorporation of passive air conditioning resources," the architects explained.

The top floor contains two bedrooms, which share a bathroom on the landing.

The smaller house has a similar layout, although the living and dining area are located on the ground floor. Here, an existing carob tree was preserved, acting as the focal point.

An open staircase divides the front and back parts of the home. "The spatial continuities are very interesting in this house, where the patios are considered as one more interior, linking them to the spaces for use," said Baldio Arquitectura.

"The staircase, always at the center of these programs and in relation to the carob tree," they added.

All three homes were built with a concrete frame painted white. The interiors are minimally decorated, with certain accent pieces like a light blue couch and a marble backsplash in the kitchen bringing some colour to the space.

Other projects in Argentina include a row-house project with gardens elevated above street level for privacy, and a brick-fronted apartment block in Rosario with "atypical" unit layouts.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:
Architecture office: Baldio Arquitectura
Architects in charge: Arch. Maria Paula Albrieu, Arch. Lucrecia Caceres
Design team: Arch. Maria Paula Albrieu, Arch. Lucrecia Caceres, Arch. Melisa Alaminos and Arch. Lourdes Cuadro
Development: BRIEU, Construction and development
Engineering: Ing. Edgar Morán

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Argentinian architectural office Colle-Croce has designed this white home on a compact lot in Buenos Aires to make the most of the available outdoor space.

Colle-Croce, based in the city, completed Casa Tronador for an infill lot between two existing party walls, in a neighbourhood that includes a mix of private homes and shops.

The architects decided to place the living areas at the back of the plot.

This decision opens up the ground floor to a terrace, which has a reflective pool in order to provide a tranquil atmosphere. Overhead, steel beams run across the garden.

The 150-square-metre home includes three bedrooms, and is laid out over as many floors. The ground floor includes the home's entertaining areas, which open to the yard via sliding glass doors.

The yard also contains an outdoor kitchen, a key feature in many Argentinian houses due to the nation's tradition of asado – communal grilling.

At the front of the property is another small exterior space, giving the dining room access to fresh air from two sides.

"The ground floor, the living room, dining room and kitchen expand to the garden," said Colle-Croce.

"Every first category space ventilates to a yard whose proportion and orientation allows excellent conditions," the studio added. "The backyard allows natural lighting at the services spaces, providing cross-ventilation."

On the first floor, the architects included two bedrooms, which share a bathroom on the landing. The second floor contains the primary bedroom, which enjoys its own ensuite and a walk-through closet.

Within each of the bedrooms, Colle-Croce included a small balcony that looks out onto the terrace. The rooftop has an expansive terrace, which the architects describe as a "lookout" to see the neighbourhood better.

A restrained palette was applied to the house, rendering in white almost every surface, including walls, cupboards, railings and beams.

The flooring on the upper levels were left in a natural wood finish. On the ground floor, tiles match the exterior paving.

Colle-Croce is led by Sebastián Colle and Rodolfo Croce, who both attended the University of Buenos Aires, and together oversaw this project.

Other projects in the Argentinian capital include a residence that is topped with arched brick vaults by Fabrizio Pugliese, and a home in the outskirts of the city by Barrionuevo Villanueva Arquitectos that marks its entrance with a dramatic cantilever.

The photography is by Federico Kulekdjian.

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Barrionuevo Villanueva Arquitectos has designed a house outside of Buenos Aires with a cantilevered upper floor that projects towards the nearby Lujan River.

The Obra Virazón project is located in Tigre, a town just north of Buenos Aires that is part of its larger metropolitan area.

The 310-square-metre home was completed in late 2021 by Córdoba-based architecture firm Barrionuevo Villanueva Arquitectos.

The architects designed the project to fit a typical residential lot, roughly six metres wide and 22 metres deep.

The ground floor has a slightly reduced footprint that creates a parking space for residents, while the upper floor cantilevers out to offer more interior space.

From the street, the home is entered underneath the large overhanging upper floor, through a full-height glass door. This leads to a foyer, which acts as the main circulation space for the home.

"[Each area] has its own condition and use, but the fact of putting them in relation produces a series of spaces and interstices that link them, relate them, and give them particular qualities," said the architects.

"This ends up generating new areas that coincidentally turn out to be the most important of the programme," they added.

The architects sought to highlight this circulation space by creating a double-height void in the centre of a home. A concrete bench runs along one side, and a variety of planters are placed underneath the sculptural staircase.

The kitchen, living, and dining spaces are at the back of the property, overlooking the Rio Lujan – a river that converges downstream with Buenos Aires' Rio de La Plata.

The living room is located in a secondary volume, which helps define an interior courtyard between the parking space and the back yard.

"[The patio] does not demand a physical action to constitute itself, but articulates the horizontal and vertical uses of the entire work," said the architects.

The architects created a varied palette of finishes, including richly patterned wood floors and cabinetry, exposed concrete for most of the walls, and black steel for the window frames and mullions.

Upstairs, the three bedrooms are laid out along a corridor. The landing at the top of the stairs includes a desk and plenty of plants, creating an informal place to work as needed.

The corridor connecting the primary bedroom at the back of the property to the two other bedrooms at the front is fronted by tall wooden staves, which cast dynamic shadows throughout the interiors.

"As you walk through the house you can discover spaces, finding projections of light and shadow, and the life that the operation of the home proposes," said the architects.

The main bedroom juts out towards the nearby river and includes its own terrace. Similarly to the side of the building, this room is fronted by operable wooden shutters to protect the residents' privacy.

Barrionuevo Villanueva recently completed a home in Córdoba Province with a communal area also wrapped by tall wooden shutters.

Other residential projects in Buenos Aires include a block of row houses by Estudio Mola that was built above the grade of surrounding streets to offer residents more tranquility, and a "subtle" renovation to a historic home from the 1930s by Torrado Arquitectos.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:

Architects: Nicolás Barrionuevo, Juan Villanueva
Clients: Marcelo Pose, Christian Espiga, Alejandro Trufelman
Engineering: Andrés Moscatelli

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Argentine architect Fabrizio Pugliese has incorporated both handcrafted and industrial elements while creating a family's holiday home just outside of Buenos Aires.

Casa Monopoli is located in San Vicente, about 50 kilometres from downtown Buenos Aires. The project serves as a weekend home for a couple with a daughter who is an industrial designer.

The 155-square-metre house was designed to embody two systems: "a handcrafted one and an industrialised one", said architect Fabrizio Pugliese, who leads an architectural practice in the Argentine capital.

Rectangular in plan, the home consists of low-slung, rectilinear volumes formed of white-painted brick and metal. On the front elevation, the architect added screens made of kiri wood.

The home sits atop a concrete slab that is lifted slightly above the ground.

"The thickness of the slab at the edge was reduced to give an effect of lightness, like the rest of the operations in the house," said Pugliese.

The dwelling is topped with a series of barrel vaults made of local red brick – which the architect described as the handmade aspect of the project. At night, uplights illuminate the roof and emphasise its arched shape.

To build the distinctive canopy, bricks were placed on a wooden mould, and a four-centimetre layer of concrete was then placed on top.

"The structural system is called 'ceramica armada', taken from Eladio Dieste," said the architect, referring to the late Uruguayan engineer who was known for creating thin, vaulted roofs.

The project's industrial aspect is found in the steel beams that make up the structural frame. This framework extends beyond the home's walls to help support the roof and balance the overall structural composition.

Crescent-shaped openings between the roof and the walls are filled in with glass.

"The gaps highlight the structure and allow light to enter, tinting the house with reddish reflections," said Pugliese.

Within the dwelling, there is a clear separation between public and private.

The front portion of the home contains two bedrooms, a studio and a bathroom. There also is a carport, which runs along one side of the house.

The rear area holds a kitchen, dining area and living room. A wide, sliding door connects to a patio with a built-in grill and a grassy yard.

Between the private and public zones is a room with a flat ceiling and a wood-burning stove. It adjoins a central patio that brings in daylight.

"The site does not have favourable orientation," said Pugliese. "It is from this situation that a courtyard is created in the centre of the house, in order to have direct light from the north."

Interior finishes include smooth concrete flooring and white-painted walls. In the kitchen, cabinetry is made of medium-density fibreboard with a guatambu wood veneer.

The homeowners participated in the construction of the home's furniture, given their love of art, carpentry and painting, said Pugliese.

Other recent Argentinian houses include a white house by S_estudio that is wheelchair accessible, a house along a golf course by Mariano Fiorentini that looks like a "huge block of concrete", and an isolated dwelling by architects Nicolás Barrionuevo and Juan Villanueva that is wrapped in operable wooden screens.

The photography is by Javier Agustin Rojas.

Project credits:

Architect: Fabrizio Pugliese
Construction: Atenea Construcciones
Collaborators: Julieta Lettieri, Floriana Chab
Furniture: Giovanna Monopoli

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Argentinian architects Nicolás Barrionuevo and Juan Villanueva have completed an isolated home in Luyaba that is wrapped by a terrace with operable wooden screens.

The Obra Luyaba project is located in Traslasierra Valley in Córdoba and occupies a steep and isolated lot. "Getting there requires taking some precautions, and the notion of neighbour is not present," said the architects.

Sweeping views of the mountainous surroundings are the greatest asset of the project, and enhancing this experience was the focus for Barrionuevo Villanueva Arquitectos, which is based in Córdoba.

"The value of the site is nature, which has the leading role as soon as the paved road is abandoned," said the architects.

"The work becomes present between the winding road, the mountain topography and the vegetation. Once there, the project takes centre stage for a moment, only to immediately return it."

"You can't compete with that environment," they explained.

Elevating the main living spaces gave the home better views of the landscape while creating a covered terrace at ground level with an outdoor kitchen.

The 270-square-metre home is entered via a concrete staircase that extends from the driveway.

This leads to the main level, which is an L-shaped volume that contains the bedrooms in one leg, and the public areas in the other.

The communal spaces extend out towards the mountainous scenery and are wrapped with full-height wooden shutters. These can be opened or closed to provide shade and prevent overheating through the glass facade.

An open kitchen and a dining room at the back of the house are visually separated from the main living space by a fireplace. The structural concrete used for the roof is visible throughout the interiors.

"The structure supports the loads, defines the space, the uses and the material expression," said the architects. "In collaboration with the wooden sieves, [the concrete structure] conditions and influences the sunlight and the views."

Perpendicular to the communal spaces are the home's three bedrooms, which are laid out along a corridor.

The intersection of both volumes contains a terrace, with an additional staircase that leads to a pool uphill from the main residence.

In addition to the exposed concrete, light-coloured tiles serve as an interior and exterior floor finish, lending some continuity between both areas.

These creamy tones are offset by warm wooden accents used for furniture, shelving, and the battens that shroud the living spaces.

Other projects recently completed in Argentina's Córdoba province include a home designed to resemble an ancient medieval village by Nanzer + Vitas and a stone-and-concrete residence that lets north light into all living spaces.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

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Smooth floors and wide thresholds are among the accessible design elements in a house designed by Argentine firm S_estudio for a family with a disabled son.

Casa Genaro is located in the La Cascada Country Golf neighbourhood in Córdoba, Argentina.

The project is named after the owners' son, Genaro, who uses a wheelchair. The clients desired a house that would be comfortable for their child.

Situated on an irregularly shaped property, the 382-square-metre dwelling consists of two offset bars that stretch from east to west.

The house was constructed using a traditional masonry system of plastered ceramic blocks, which are painted white. Each volume is topped with a pitched, metal-clad roof that communicates a notion of shelter.

The home's street-facing elevation is on the east, where the team placed a wood-faced, two-car garage. A step-free pathway leads toward the front door.

"A sequence without unevenness enlivens the arrival of the house to the natural terrain and works as a bellows between the private interior and the more public exterior," said local firm S_estudio.

The entrance leads into a wide, central hallway illuminated by skylights. The home's programming is arrayed along this corridor.

"The house is the result of alternatives that achieve the highest level of accessibility and independence with the fewest number of routes, without altering the privacy of all the functions it contains," said the studio.

To one side of the hallway are bedrooms, a game room and a small office space. Opening toward the south, this area receives the best quality of daylight for Genaro's daily recreational activities, the team said.

To the other is the "social hall", which consists of an open kitchen, dining area and living room. Large stretches of glass and sliding doors provide a connection to a covered patio, a swimming pool and a grassy yard.

"The social nave, hierarchical through its great height and sloping ceiling, opens to the north orientation in search of the exterior spaces," the team said.

"A gallery in relation to the living and dining area, without slopes and completely glazed, gives continuity to the pool."

The team incorporated a system of sliding and folding curtains that modulate daylight and provide privacy. Other interior elements include smooth porcelain flooring, wide thresholds and limited partitions.

Other wheelchair-friendly homes include an English house by Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt that aims to makes life easier for its occupant, while not compromising on design quality.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:

Architecture firm: S_estudio
Architect in charge: Bruno Sileoni
Design team: Bruno Sileoni, Jesica Grötter, Lautaro Giuggia Monteverde, Rocío Rueda Coll
Engineering: Marcelo Bonafé
Facilities: Labrin Ingeniera Sanitaria
Lighting design: LBLD

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Local architect Mariano Fiorentini has completed an Argentinian house next to a golf course that was designed to look like a "huge block of concrete".

Casa Golf is located within a gated community on the outskirts of Rosario, a large city in the Santa Fe province of Argentina. Designed for a couple with three children, the home sits on a 2,000-square-metre plot overlooking a golf course.

Local architect Fiorentini sought to find a balance between open and private, natural and urban, and large and domestic at the house.

"In addition to maximising land use to respond to an extensive program of needs, the project explores the duality inherent to this type of urbanisation," the architect said.

Rectangular in plan, the 838-square-metre home has three levels – a main floor with communal spaces, a more private upper level and a basement for leisure purposes.

Exterior surfaces consist of dark-hued stucco and exposed concrete, with windows covered with aluminium shutters. The home is closed off in the front but opens up in the rear, where it looks toward the golf course.

The front-facing elevation comprises a box that slightly cantilevers over the level below. This front face has two voids, the architect said.

One is a garage near the centre of the elevation. The other is a side pathway, which connects to the home's main entry door and a rear barbecue area.

"From the outside, the house is perceived as a solid unit, like a large, concrete container that floats austerely over two voids," the architect said.

"From there, the huge block of concrete unfolds toward the landscape and mirrors the undulating topography of the golf course to generate a zigzagging series of fills and voids."

The home's entrance sits adjacent to a lush garden covered with a pergola made of concrete beams.

Within the dwelling, there is a centrally placed, double-height living room that was designed to protect "the intimacy of family life". Openings surround the room and bring in daylight.

The openings include a covered patio, a glazed wall lining the garage, and several windows offering sight lines of upper-level terraces and the sky.

"The large glazing of these intermediate spaces – with their contrast of transparencies and reflections – place the living room in the great ‘all-seeing eye' by organically integrating all the activities of the house," the studio said.

"This creates a domestic and pleasantly controlled environment within a large-scale spatial proposal."

Interior finishes include concrete walls, porcelain flooring and rich-toned wood.

In the communal spaces, tall, gauzy curtains modulate the amount of light flowing into the home.

Stretching along the west bank of the Paraná River, Rosario is the third most populous city in Argentina.

Other recent projects in the city include a housing complex by BBOA that features white brick walls and angled roofs and a long concrete house by Pablo Gagliardo with a roof slab that dramatically extends over a patio and staircase.

The photography is by Ramiro Sosa.

Project credits:

Architect, project manager and interior designer: Mariano Fiorentini
Collaborators: Paulina Medina, Joana Severini, Leonel Bertuccelli, Ignacio Foyatier
Constructors: Edilizia, Constructions Developments
Structural calculations: Sergio Faci, Federico Zegna Rata
Lighting advisor: Fernando Piedrabuena
Acoustics advisors: Pablo J. Miechi, Vivian Pasch
Landscaping: Flora Martín

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Brick screens and patterned metal shutters wrap the outside of this block of row houses in Buenos Aires that was developed by local architects Estudio Mola.

The Complejo 8 ("Complex 8") project is located in Castelar, a city in Argentina that is part of the broader Buenos Aires metropolitan area. As the name suggests, it offers eight single-family residences on the same lot.

Estudio Mola, which is also based in Castelar, divided the longitudinal block into eight row houses, creating exposures on the front and back of each residence.

The 1,400-square-metres building is elevated above the street, which creates a parking space underneath each house.

"The ground floor serves as a main pedestrian and vehicular entrance to all the units," said Estudio Mola.

"There is a pedestrian circulation next to a long concrete wall that guides us to each of the brick boxes, which serve as a private access to each living unit," it added.

On the intermediate floor, the architects designed an open-concept kitchen, living, and dining room that opens out to the backyard.

Because of a grade change on site, they were able to include this outdoor space on the upper level, which is higher than the surrounding streets.

Each of the resident's gardens is separated by a perforated brick wall, offering some privacy without making the outdoor space feel too enclosed.

An open concrete staircase leads residents to the top floor, where the typical layout offers three bedrooms and a bathroom. To enclose the private spaces on this floor, the architects designed a system of white metal shutters.

Since the top floor has a larger footprint, it has the appearance of a uniform volume that fills the entire lot. "The idea of expanding up and out is something very characteristic of this project," said the architects.

"It allows us to connect each home to the outside, receive better sunlight due the elevation of the garden, and keep the vehicle areas isolated," they explained.

On the inside, the studio took a more restrained approach, leaving exposed white walls, raw concrete ceilings, and simple wooden flooring. At either end of the long block, small courtyards filled with vegetation mark a contrast to the building's palette.

Other projects in Buenos Aires include a courtyard house that was extended with a glass-and-steel volume, and a sensitive renovation to a home from the 1930s by Torrado Arquitectos.

The photography is by Javier Agustin Rojas.

Project credits:

Project managers: Alejo Fernandez, Lucas Geya
Design team: Francisco Ricart, Julian Marchetti, Gimena Caffo, Alejo Del Grosso, Marcos Bartellone
Engineer: Claudio Ianesse

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Argentinian office Set Ideas has added a glass-and-steel extension to a house in the mountains of Córdoba, using a modular structure to enlarge the resident's living spaces.

Completed earlier in 2021, the project is dubbed Fluid House, and entailed a thorough remodel of an existing home in the central province of Argentina.

Set Ideas, an office that is based in Córdoba's Villa Allende, employed its signature modular steel system to create new living spaces within the home.

"We took advantage of the spectacular vistas and the original layout of the house to generate a modular metal structure," Set Ideas explained.

The intervention is first seen from the street, where a new gate provides more privacy for the home's residents.

Black metal pickets now front the building, giving only glimpses of the residence beyond. Behind these, the architects laid out a new outdoor lounge area, with a fireplace and grill.

To the home itself, Set Ideas added a four-storey volume that is attached to the existing stone structure. Because of the site's steep slope, this addition meets the scale of the current property.

"We re-evaluated the functionality of the house on each of the existing levels, giving precedence and visual importance to what was previously built," said Set Ideas.

"We designed and built everything in metal on the house, to make old and new as one complete project," the studio told Dezeen.

The extension itself is made of black steel structural supports and windows, complemented with plywood panels that form guardrails and ceilings.

On the ground floor, the architects included a new living room, which enjoys sweeping views of the lush surroundings and is connected to a dine-in kitchen below by an open staircase.

"With few but significant elements, we managed to make the space flow through a modular structure," said Set Ideas.

Set Ideas also used the intervention as an opportunity to create a new storage room in the cellar, as well as a small home office perched on the top floor. In total, the new floor area encompasses 130 square metres.

Technical improvements were also made to the existing structure, including new windows throughout the home, and a refurbishment of the existing masonry facade.

Other projects in Córdoba include a residence that Argentinian studio Nanzer + Vitas designed to resemble a ruined medieval village using local stones cast into concrete formwork, and a home that architect Edgardo Marveggio designed for his ex-wife that features intricate textures on its walls.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte. 

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No two apartments are alike in a brick-clad apartment building in the central Argentine city of Rosario, designed by architecture firm BBOA.

The Suipacha building occupies a corner in Barrio Pichincha, a neighbourhood just beyond downtown Rosario. Once a fairly quiet district dominated by middle-class homes, the area has become livelier and more diverse in the past decade.

The 550-square-metre building sits on a 110-square-metre lot that formerly held a single-family house. The blocky, five-storey building rises 13.6 metres.

"There is a maximum use of the ground and the permitted height, in accordance with the urban code and building regulations," said local firm BBOA, or Balparda Brunel Oficina de Arquitectura.

The building's ground level encompasses two garages and retail space, while the upper floors contain a total of six apartments. A lower corner of the building is carved away to form an entrance alcove.

"You access from the void in the corner," the architects said. "We wanted to generate tension with the weight of the cantilever."

Based on its market research, the developer of the Suipacha building aimed to construct a building with six units. Rather than using standardised layouts, BBOA decided to mix things up.

All of the apartments have different floor plans – an approach that optimises the virtues of each unit and reflects the diversity of the surrounding neighbourhood, the team said.

There are no corridors in the building. Instead, apartments are located directly off a shared staircase and shared elevator.

Studio apartments, ranging from 32 to 35 square metres, are located on floors one and four. A one-bedroom, 52-square-metre unit is located on the second floor.

Two-bedroom apartments are located on levels two through four. One is 72 square metres, while the other totals 95 square metres. Both have two storeys.

In the two-storey units, the public area is on the upper level and the bedrooms are below – another atypical approach to apartment layouts.

Interior finishes include concrete floors and ceilings, along with cabinetry and wall panels made of plywood with a special coating. Glazed doors provide access to balconies.

Exterior walls consist of locally made brick with a grey-brown pigment. In certain areas, bricks were used to form lattices that allow light to stream into the apartments.

Various-sized windows, which seem randomly placed, hint at the non-standardised layout found within the building.

"The variation in the exterior distribution reflects the uniqueness of the configuration," the team said.

Other projects by BBOA include a housing development in Rosario that features white buildings with angled roofs, and a government-backed apartment complex in Granadero Baigorria that consists of different-sized buildings clad in pink brick.

The photography is by Javier Agustin Rojas.

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Argentinian architects Nanzer + Vitas modelled this home in the mountains of Córdoba province on a medieval village, clustering together distinct stone volumes with varying heights and roof profiles.

Casa DP is located in Capilla del Monte, a mountainous area roughly 100 kilometres north-east of Córdoba city.

Completed in 2020, the 290-square-metre house was conceived as "a concrete and stone promontory emerging from the hill," according to Nanzer + Vitas.

The architects wanted the home to sit comfortably on its site, which is surrounded by greenery and enjoys views of the mountainous terrain.

"We were interested in the physical expression of the unfinished, the ways in which the work is gradually taken over by the landscape," the team said.

Their analogy for the house is a ruined medieval village, with volumes of different sizes and heights clustered together and partially hidden among the trees.

"Such condition is the final form with which architecture enters in communion with nature and returns to it," said the studio.

Five square modules, each measuring five metres in length, form the main volumes of the home. Some of the interstitial spaces between them are enclosed, while others are used as patios.

Continuing in the comparison to a village, the architects liken the circulation spaces to streets and plazas running through the home.

Because of the site's slope, the house is approached from the lower level, where a large concrete cantilever marks the entrance. On this floor, there is a music rehearsal room and a children's bedroom.

A short flight of steps leads up to the kitchen, living and dining room, which forms the heart of the home and is located between the stone volumes that hold the private spaces.

The kitchen, described as "the centre of gravity of the life in this house", is anchored by a long concrete countertop and lit by full-height glass walls on all four sides.

"It's a place to stay, where the interior communicates openly and in different directions with the exterior space and the power of its landscape," said Nanzer + Vitas.

Towards the back of the home, a separate living area is contained within another concrete cube. The owner's private sleeping quarters are located upstairs, adjoining an ensuite bathroom.

Nanzer + Vitas worked with local masons to create the unique texture of the walls, which are built from quarried stone that is cast together with concrete, partially revealing the underlying stone pattern.

"The material condition defines and qualifies this house," said the architects. "It is through the material that the technique used throughout the whole is expressed."

Most of the structural materials are exposed through the interiors, including the floors formed from polished concrete.

Furnishings provide some warmth and contrast to the overall composition.

Nanzer + Vitas co-founder Christian Nanzer has also worked with Mariela Marchisio and Germán Margherit to complete a building made up of three houses only 3.13 metres wide in Córdoba, while other homes in the province include a house with textured walls that architect Edgardo Marveggio designed for his ex-wife.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

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Concrete, sheet metal and large stretches of glass form the exterior of a home in the province of Córdoba by Argentine firm STC Arquitectos.

The project is named after its location in La Hornilla, a suburb of Alta Gracia. The single-storey home sits on a 20- by 50-metre property in the highlands, with views of both the city and the hills.

Córdoba firm STC Arquitectos conceived the 168-square-metre home as a flexible building that could adapt to the client's daily needs.

"The house can either be divided to remain isolated, connected to assemble, closed to ensure privacy, or open to enjoy the landscape and outdoor areas,” the architects said.

The home is composed of a low-lying, rectangular box adjoined to a carport in the front and a covered terrace in the rear. The design allows for future expansions, either horizontally or vertically.

The main volume's structure is made of brick and reinforced concrete. The carport and patio are surrounded by white sheet metal affixed to a metal frame.

Large stretches of glass provide transparency and usher in natural light.

The home is entered on the east, where a gently sloping ramp leads to the front door. The ramp forms part of a circulation path that runs through the home, onto the rear patio, and down a few steps to the backyard.

Inside, the home has a straightforward layout.

An open area for lounging, dining and cooking is separated from the bedroom by a partial wall. Service areas are located on the ends of the home. Finishes include a concrete ceiling and ceramic flooring that resembles wood.

"Intermediate spaces have been designed to emphasise the outdoors-indoors relation,” the studio said.

Above the entrance is a skylight that rises up from the roof. This element could accommodate the addition of stairs to an upper floor in the future, the architects said.

The patio is fitted with a built-in grill and a sink. A swimming pool is planned for the backyard.

Other projects by STC Arquitectos include a cabin in the Argentine woods that was built using reclaimed material like scrap metal and oil pipes.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:

Architect: STC Arquitectos
Architecture team: Juan Salassa, Santiago Tissot, Ivan Castañeda
Collaborator: Julián Perdomo

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Argentine architect Edgardo Marveggio has designed an asymmetrical home in Córdoba for his ex-wife that features a waffle-slab roof and walls covered in thick plaster.

Maricel's House is located in Morrison, an agricultural town in Argentina's Córdoba province. The two-storey dwelling sits within a neighbourhood with low-scale buildings.

The client was architect Edgardo Marveggio's ex-wife, and the two worked closely together on the project, from the big concepts to the finest details.

Roughly rectangular in plan, the 250-square-metre house is composed of intersecting bars, boxes and planes. Facades consist of exposed concrete and thick plaster.

The home has a small front garden and a backyard. The property is surrounded by walls that block views from the street and neighbouring structures.

"This gives shape to the main idea – to provide privacy from the public and the roadside," the architect said.

The only place where the home gestures toward the street is found on the upper portion of the front elevation, where a yellow, waffle slab extends over a patio.

Inside, the home is designed to be dynamic and flexible.

The ground level encompasses a bedroom suite, a kitchen and an open area for dining and lounging.

"The central module, which is double-height and has zenithal light and waffle slab, becomes the focal point and linking spot of the whole building," the architect said.

The top floor holds a bedroom. The two levels are connected by a concrete floating staircase, which was envisioned as a sculptural element.

Rooms are fitted with contemporary furnishings and artwork.

Just off the main living space is the rear yard, which features paved walkways, a small lawn, a covered dining area and another sheltered area for gardening and cooking.

Other projects in the Córdoba province include a house by PSV Arquitectura that consists of overlapping layers of concrete and stone, and a concrete building by a team of architects that holds a trio of tall, skinny residences.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:

Architect: Edgardo Marveggio
Engineer: Alberto lainatti

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Roberto Benito Arquitecto has completed a low-slung house in central Argentina with concrete walls designed to look like geological strata.

The project, called Vivienda Texturas – or Textural House – is located in San Francisco, a city in Argentina's Córdoba province. The horizontal dwelling sits on a 1,490-square-metre corner lot in a low-density neighbourhood.

The residence is intended to provide a suitable atmosphere for both quiet reflection and entertaining guests.

"It is a place designed for gathering with friends, but also to promote a peaceful and reflective life," said local firm Roberto Benito Arquitecto.

Throughout the house, the team sought to use unfinished materials that would give rise to a "textural architecture".

"The significance given to materiality, represented by the nakedness and honesty of some natural finishes, makes it acquire a great expressiveness," the architect said.

The single-storey house consists of rectilinear volumes that are interspersed with shaded patios. These outdoor voids are meant to establish a continuity between inside and out.

For the exterior walls, the team used irregular layers of concrete.

"Exposed concrete walls are cast in layers with different components in the dosage, giving it the appearance of geological strata," the firm said.

The home is topped with an overhanging roof that helps shade large stretches of glass. A thick fascia is wrapped in weathering steel.

"This large 'lid' is expressed as a rusted-metal sheet border that runs around the perimeter and, at some point, it volumises, reaching the floor," the team said.

At the core of the home is a square-shaped public area. The living and dining spaces are separated from the kitchen by a long, glazed partition.

The main room has an industrial feel owing to exposed columns, visible pipes and concrete flooring. Two sides of the room are glazed, while the other two are solid, allowing for the display of artwork.

Adjacent to the public zone are two bedrooms, which are linked by a common patio. Similar to other parts of the house, the sleeping area has a raw aesthetic.

The property's landscaping features native plants, including cacti and scraggly trees.

Other homes in Cordoba include an "introverted" dwelling by Patio Estudio that is filled with internal patios, and a grand house by PSV Arquitectura that features overlapping layers of concrete and stone.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits: 

Architect: Roberto Benito Arquitecto
Interior designer: Nancy Silvestro, Roberto Benito

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Architects Mariela Marchisio, Cristián Nanzer and Germán Margherit have completed a concrete building in central Argentina that contains a trio of tall, skinny residences designed for both living and working.

The Tríptico Building is located within the Ducasse neighbourhood on the northern outskirts of Córdoba, Argentina. It sits near a commercial sector that was once a hub for automotive parts and is now in the midst of a transformation.

Designed by three local architects – Mariela Marchisio, Cristián Nanzer and Germán Margherit – the multi-unit building occupies a lot that is 10 metres wide and 25.7 metres deep, and bounded by party walls.

"The whole building is a typological essay on densification in a degraded neighbourhood area, but with a strategic location in relation to the services of the city centre and the linear park of the Suquía River," said the architects.

Envisioned as a trial in "micro-density", the 514-square-metre building comprises a trio of narrow, three-storey residences that are placed next to each other, rather than being stacked.

Each dwelling's interior is 3.13 metres wide and 18 metres tall. Levels are linked by a staircase in each unit.

"The typological concept of the project is based on three vertical houses, not stacked but attached to each other along their side boundaries, all with double ventilation," said the architects.

The design takes cues from Japanese precedents, such as the vertical houses in Tokyo by architect Waro Kishi. The concepts underlying those homes were translated using "South American eyes and hands".

The units within the Tríptico Building are designed for both living and working.

A study and workspace are found on the ground level, which also offers a small courtyard that can serve as a barbecue area or children's play zone.

The second level holds two en-suite bedrooms that can be converted into a workspace if needed.

The third storey, which is double height, encompasses a living room, kitchen, dining area and balcony.

This level also provides access to a rooftop terrace that is shared by all three residences. The terrace offers views of the urban skyline and the distant mountains.

The building's reinforced concrete structure helped determine its spatial configuration, according to the architects.

"Four longitudinal concrete partitions, four levels high, define the 'bars' of the three vertical spaces of each unit," the team explained.

Moreover, on the facade, an inverted beam spanning 10 metres – between the two party walls – allowed for the central partitions to not extend to the ground. This in turn freed up space for a hallway and a three-car garage.

"This space, when the vehicles are removed, becomes a space for sporadic social events for the inhabitants of the consortium," the team said.

The north elevation consists of a metal frame wrapped with galvanised wire mesh. The mesh is covered with deciduous vines, mainly wisteria, which grows out of concrete planters lining the facade.

The interior features industrial finishes such as exposed concrete walls, plywood cabinetry and corrugated metal closet doors. Pipes and conduit were left exposed.

Home to approximately 1.5 million people, Córdoba is the capital of the Argentine province of the same name. Other projects there include a house by PSV Arquitectura that consists of overlapping layers of concrete and stone, and a cultural centre that features a huge, sloping public square on its roof.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

Project credits:

Architects: Mariela Marchisio, Cristián Nanzer and Germán Margherit
Collaborator: Marcos Barboza
Structural calculations: Edgard Morán
Constructor: Adrián Molina, S. Heredia
Aluminium carpentry: Aluvicor
Elaborated concrete: Hormi – Block SA
Blacksmiths: Fabián Aimar e Hijos, Luis Herrera and Diego Herrera

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Argentinian practice Patio Estudio has completed a concrete and stone home in the city of Córdoba that features living spaces arranged around a checkerboard of 11 planted patios.

Casa Mono was designed for a couple who wanted a private, "introverted" retreat that also had a strong connection to the outdoors.

Patio Estudio slightly raised the home using soil from the site to allow it to overlook its surroundings, with views framed by a concrete envelope that mirrors the checkerboard arrangement of the home's private patios.

A winding ramp at the front of the home leads up to the living spaces, where a central corridor connects the bedrooms at one end to the living, dining and kitchen space at the other.

"It was important to create a promenade through the house to be able to rise slowly and thus be able to see the mountain landscape," Patio Estudio told Dezeen.

This plan is based on a grid that has been separated into nine "solid" volumes and 11 "empty" patio volumes, allowing each living space to look out onto at least one patio.

These patios have been designed to complement the living spaces, such as creating a paved external area for the living room to extend onto, or densely planted areas that bring nature into the bedrooms.

"The patio is the element that separates and connects the different functions of the house," said the studio.

"It is used to expand the volume on the ground, generating complementary spaces that allow an interior/exterior link, taking the outside as part of the inside, perceiving it as another part of the house."

Below, the ground floor has been designed as an entertaining space that can be accessed via a dedicated staircase at the rear of the home, with a large terrace for hosting barbecues, a swimming pool and a volleyball court.

The thin concrete envelope that wraps the home is configured to create moments of varying privacy and light throughout the interiors, and is topped by a flat roof that also features a checkerboard of openings.

"The concrete skin that envelops the house configures intimacy, win protection and visual orientation, and also generates intimate patios, sun protection, galleries and balconies," said the studio.

Behind this envelope are walls built from locally quarried stone, which have been left exposed in areas of the interior.

The "cold and rustic" materials such as concrete and stone have been set against warmer areas of wood, as seen in the living room where two wooden window seats are positioned either side of a stone fireplace.

Other projects in Argentina include a concrete holiday home by Estudio Galera and a housing scheme clad with pink brick by BBOA.

The photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

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