We are seduced by steel structures, particularly the eloquence and precision of their assembly and presence. That explicit condition of drawing the efforts as they decant in the tectonicity of the building…as in the works of Foster, Rogers, Renzo Piano you immediately have the certainty that Newton lives ... so far away from the mannerist approaches of the parametric trend of some currant architecture. The issue of context is no less important, there is always eloquent immediate information about the environment that guides us towards an architecture integrated with the context in terms of its own identity, where design decisions consolidate the character of the place. Here in Palermo Viejo, it is the insinuation of one more passage that illustrates those who know the neighborhood…
The slogan, as always, is that Technology, History and Nature interact creatively.
In this project we have chosen to obviate the obvious solution by generating three independent volumes linked by an access platform that houses a staircase and an elevator. The three independent towers, released from contact with each other, result in stacked little houses with three free sides allowing optimal cross ventilation and abundant lighting from operable windows thus avoiding the large glazed walls. The result is set of internal spaces and places as rich as unexpected.
The metallic structural skeleton,assemled with HEB200 medium Gray profiles as beams and columns is a reminder of our YPF service station in Nordelta. The rapid assembly of a clean structure with millimetric precision implies that the stages of laying precast concrete mezzanines; the exterior walls of RETAK lightweight concrete blocks clad on the outside with calcareous mosaics and on the inside with Durlock gypsum boards and aluminum windows; balconies made of ecological wood… these are all quality operations carried out once, without successive approximation of the optimal result. Materiality is what it is and is thus interpreted and enjoyed. With the same criteria, the kitchen equipment – designed by Dana Cabeza - is made of stainless steel and the storage furniture and space divisors are made of multilayered ply-wood veneered in guatambu.
On these terms, 11 functional units have been obtained: in the “A” tower there is a small shop at ground level, two 43.10 sqmflats with internal balconies and a 53 sqm duplex; in the central tower "B" there are 3 living / study units of 31.60 sqm and the “C” tower at the back repeats the "A" tower substituting at ground level the shop with a flat unit with own back yard. In the heart of the block, the parking area is covered by pavers and grass accompanied by three poplar trees which protect the west façade from the afternoon sun. The party walls are covered with ampelopsis: a red autumn in tune with the anticorrosive paint of the structure…
The service systems are the conventional ones: hydraulic elevator, cold water from tank on upper roof, hot water from 3 solar panels and 3 thermo tanks, one for each tower and split type hot-cold air conditioning per unit with condensers on the central tower’s terrace.
Jorge Hampton and Emilio Rivoira have received the “Bienalba Award for Argentine Architecture” at the 17th Buenos Aires Architecture Biennial /2019, in recognition of this work and their professional career.
