The House

This house is located in the northwest of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, in the Villa Santa Rita district. The buildings in this area are relatively low, favoring a quieter pace of life than in other city districts. It is placed in a small lot with an existing house to be preserved. Everything from the original building that is useful will be preserved. In this context, the project’s strategy focuses on designing spaces that increase the possibilities for occupancy, where visuals expand and the experience of being in the house is based on sequences at different scales.

The design adapts to the existing structure and increases the living area using three more stories, so that the new stories become the main living area of the house and are suitable for the current family lifestyle. Thus, the connection with the city is achieved at the access level, where the existing building becomes a multifunctional area, incorporating daily life into the urban setting. The compact and simple volumetry is also multidirectional, generating visual and material connections through a sensitive interplay between materiality, light, and scales.

The organization comprises a service area and staircase, relieving the ground floor and making it open towards the front. This strategy provides luminosity and openness to common areas. 

The house has a ground floor with a hallway, a garage, and a workshop; a first floor with public spaces; a second floor with bedrooms; and finally, a rooftop garden.

The logic of the structure shows a simple geometric order whose function is to integrate spaces, whereas the staircase works as a connecting space from where the entire lot can be appreciated.

The facades have a design that is independent from the structure and are associated with the qualities and needs of the interior space, intensifying the relationship between the house and its urban setting.

The brick from the existing building is used as a design feature, maximizing it in a myriad of possibilities and material textures.