TSJ–
location: Buenos Aires
year: 2019-2023 * on going
client: private
type: intervention in housing unit
collaborators: arch. Emilia Calleja, Candelaria Gómez Smurra, Carolina Cui Xiao
photo: Félix Nikado
The existing construction was built in the 80s by C. Valentini and L.A. Valentini with a steel formwork system.
The structure in concrete partitions defines a robust skeleton that shapes the distribution of the plan layout, from the outer envelope to the inner spaces. The sole non-structural walls are the ones that divide the four units of the Tower between them on each floor.
The slab thicknesses defining each floor are visible only on the balconies. Two bands of Curtain Wall in bent sheet carpentry appear on each facade of the building.
The new intervention exhumes the traces of the old moulds used to cast the concrete mix.
The bent sheet metal carpentry is restored and new details of metal folds are developed in the spaces freed by the removal of the blinds.
A change of floor denotes the passage of the installations that bypass the concrete structure.The intervention enhances the texture and tone of the concrete. The boulder of the thick aggregate in the concrete mix is evoked in the compact granite stone mosaic tiles on the floor, and gives rise to an atmosphere in gray like a space without a horizon, where light reveals the changes of textures and brightness of the different materials.