Campanini and Sposito built aluminum apartments in Buenos Aires
Local architecture studio Juan Campanini, Josefina Sposito, has hidden an urban apartment building behind a minimalist aluminum facade in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The six-residence building, known as the Viere Avilés Residence, was completed in 2022 using a legal instrument called “Fideicomiso,” whereby groups of middle-class residents can collectively invest in the development of small-scale buildings for home ownership in the area. A housing market that is often inaccessible.
Juan Campanini and Josefina Sposito helped the residents purchase a typical 8.66 meter wide plot of land, then designed and built the 450-450 square meter building.
“In the context of Argentina’s unstable financial system and lack of long-term bank loans or large-scale public investments, this alternative system allowed us to address the needs of owners while participating at every stage of the process,” the studio said.
Located in the residential Coligiales neighbourhood, the building features a two-metre-high wall along the street which folds up into a garage door for parking beneath the high-rise apartments.
The building is located 1.5 meters behind the property line, and rises on light blue H-shaped steel columns. The facade is composed of corrugated silver anodized aluminum commonly used for roof cladding. The homogeneous surface is punctuated by 12 identical rectangular windows arranged in a grid.
“When viewed from the site, its minimal thickness reveals its surface behaviour, acting as a falling veil covering the facade of the building,” the studio said. “In this way, the building creates a clear, unified image towards the city, which refuses to reveal any internal organization.”
The open-plan ground floor has a small concrete volume for the elevator, basement stairs and air ducts.
The rear edge of the property has two small planted gardens divided by a concrete staircase with a thin white metal railing that runs up the full height of the building.
On each upper floor, the stairs ascend to an open-air landing in front of the mirrored elevator wall. The landing goes through a blue metal gate onto a small private balcony for each residence.
Each floor contains two studio apartments, symmetrically balanced across a central central space that is pulled back three meters from the edge of the building.
“Hosting the unit’s bathroom, kitchen and wardrobe, this intense piece of software is separated from the facade of the building, preventing it from being visible through the windows,” the studio said.
The unit’s interiors are simple with polished concrete floors, rough concrete ceilings and flat white walls. Light enters the units through two large windows overlooking the urban landscape beyond.
Above the residence are two large roof terraces pulled back from the edge of the building by a garden.
“From the height, the landscape of the neighborhood is visible, and the project stands as one part of the city’s heterogeneous landscape,” the studio said.
Using a similar screening strategy, Adamo-Faiden used gazebos and gratings to provide privacy in the units of this residential tower in Buenos Aires. Also, BHY Arquitectos created a similar facade for the city’s water filling house.
Photography by Javier Augustin Rojas.
Project credits:
Architects: Juan Campanini Josefina Sposito
project team: Julia Yabkovsky, Valentina Luccardi
General contractor: Eminco Patagonia S.A
