Throughout the 20th century, several factors contributed to Buenos Aires’s architectural
significance. In the early decades of the century, when Buenos Aires was the capital of
one of the wealthiest countries in the world, architects were commissioned to design
luxurious residences and institutional buildings, many influenced by French and Italian
styles. Later, different immigrant groups looking for status constructed important
examples that followed European traits of Viennese secession, Italian liberty, and Catalan
modernism. The rationalist architecture of the early 1930s and 1940s in Buenos Aires is
one the most significant of the world. This era of architecture greatly influenced the
present profile of the city. Also relevant are the examples of Brutalist architecture. The
last decades of the century have been characterized by an interest in preserving this rich
architectural heritage and by new architectural interventions related to the existing urban
fabric.
Buenos Aires is situated by the estuary of the Rio de la Plata and the plains. The city
became a federal district in 1880 and since then has gained more political, financial, and
administrative power. In 1910 the mayor, Torcuato de Alvear, inspired by the Beaux-Arts
influence and the Parisian example of Baron von Haussmann in the 1850s, provided the
city with a framework of avenues, plazas, and parks.
In the early 20th century, the city consisted of a basic infrastructure of institutional
buildings and magnificent private residences following Italian academic styles. Carlos
Morra designed the former National Library (1901) and Victor Meano and Julio Dormal
the Colon Theater (1908). Later, French influence dominated the city. Alexander
Christophersen designed the Anchorena Palace (1909; today the Palace of Foreign
Affairs). The Frenchman René Sergent designed three large residences, among them the
Errazuriz Palace (1911). Utilitarian architecture followed English influence. Retiro
(1914), the major train station, was designed by Conder, Conder, Farmer, and Follet, with
the metallic structure produced by Morton and Co. in Liverpool. The opening of avenues
such as May Avenue and North Diagonal completed a scheme that transformed Buenos
Aires into the “Paris of South America.”
In the 1920s, academic dominance was affected by two other tendencies, namely the
importation of European-derived Art Nouveau and the reemergence of pride in the
Spanish heritage and the Ibero-American roots of the city. Immigrants who found a taste
of economic power sought expressions for their new status. Italians such as Mario
Palenti, who designed Pasaje Barolo (1923), expressed this reaction against academic
architecture; Joaquín García Núñez designed for the Spanish colony; and Martin Noel
designed a residence that today houses the Museum Fernandez Blanco (1916), a neo-
Colonial building with Spanish decoration and details. Also inspired by the Spanish High
Renaissance is the Cervantes Theater (1921) by Aranda and Repetto. In the 1920s, Art
Deco challenged the preference for traditional academic architecture. Deco details were
Entries A–F 343
linked to modern buildings: cinemas, parking garages, banks, and apartments. An
important representative of this tendency is Alejandro Virasoro, who designed the House
of Theater (1927), the Santander Bank (1926), and the Equitativa del Plata (1929).
Le Corbusier visited Buenos Aires in 1929 and gave a series of ten lectures, the most
comprehensive of his career. Werner Hegemann followed him in 1931. Although both
spoke of a harmonious synthesis, they offered different approaches to resolve the
problems of the growing metropolis. Le Corbusier’s influence was felt a decade later with
the creation of the Austral Group and with the Plan for Buenos Aires (1938, in
collaboration with Ferrari Hardoy and Kurchan). His enduring influence was felt also in
many Brutalist projects in the following decades.
As a result of his visit, Le Corbusier was inspired by the gigantic landscape and wrote
his book, Precis ions of the Present State o f Architectu re and City Plann ing (1930). Similarly, Hegemann’s ideas influenced the urbanist Carlos della
Paolera and some projects by Jorge Kalnay.
Several factors, such as the academic influence, the Beaux-Arts model for the
education of the architect, the German-language influence, and the Art Deco materials
and detail, generated a series of buildings between the late 1930s and 1940s that has been
characterized as part of the “School of Buenos Aires.” At this time, major avenues helped
define the city as a metropolis—Corrientes, Santa Fe, 9 de Julio, and General Paz—and
the city acquired a more cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Alejandro Bustillo was the architect of the first modernist building of Buenos Aires,
Maison Ocampo (1929). Yet, showing the eclectic nature of the time, he later developed
a classical language, as in the headquarters of the Argentinean Central Bank (1939). Two
important buildings are the COMEGA (1932) by Alfredo Joselevich and Enrique Douillet
and the SAFICO (1934) by Walter Moll. By the early 1940s, modernism triumphed as the
dominant style. The Kavanagh Apartment Building (1936) by Sánchez, Lagos and de la
Torre, for example, evinces an extraordinary modernist silhouette within the urban
landscape. This 30-story building won an Award of the American Society of Engineering
(1994). Moreover, the Grand Rex Cinema (1937) by Alberto Prebish exhibits purist
modern lines and architectural economy, and his Obelisk (1936), located at the
intersection of three major avenues, remains a landmark and symbol of the city.
The apartments of Libertador and Lafinur (1937) by Sánchez, Lagos and de la Torre
constituted a signpost of modern architecture in Argentina. The ateliers of Suipacha and
Paraguay (1938) by Antonio Bonet, Vera Barros, and Lopez Chas suggest the flexibility,
open plan, and experimentation with material but also mark one the first buildings to be
distanced from orthodox rationalism in Buenos Aires.
Antonio Ubaldo Vilar produced works combining functionality and a pure
formal language, namely the Central Headquarters (1943) of the
Automobile Club of Argentina. With the arrival of Peron (1946–52 and
1952–55), industrialization and legislation to improve social conditions
marked a new period in Buenos Aires. The city attracted immigrants from
the interior of the country, requiring the populist regime to provide large housing complexes and
infrastructure as well as buildings to meet needs for health care, education, and
recreation.
At the middle of the century, Amancio Williams designed an unrealized proposal
(1945) for an airport for the city designed to stand over the river on immense Le
Corbusian pilotis. The study of the Regulatory Plan for the city (1947–49), done by Kurchan
and Hardoy in collaboration with Le Corbusier, marks the Modern movement’s maturity.
The most important work of the 1950s is the Theater General San Martin (1953–60)-
by Mario Roberto Alvarez and Macedonio Ruiz and, connected to it, the Cultural Center
San Martin (1960–64) by Alvarez and Associates. Detailed with refinement and quality
of materials, this building denotes the influences of the International Style.
In the 1960s, the work of Clorindo Testa, as in the Bank of London (1966), indicates a
significant turning point in the city’s architecture. Aesthetically derived from Le
Corbusier’s principles of reductivism and lack of ornamentation, the bank’s exterior
reflects the Brutalist use of concrete for rationalist ends. The Headquarters of the Bank of
the City of Buenos Aires (1967) by Manteola, Sánchez Gómez, Santos, Solsona, and
Viñoly is also significant: a box of glass bricks framed by a metallic structure, it was one
of the first examples of recycled architecture in Buenos Aires.
A significant building of the 1970s is the ATC Argentina Televisora Color (1978) by
Manteola, Sánchez Gómez, Santos, Solsona, and Viñoly, associated with Salaberry and
Tarsitano, a landmark in the urban landscape. The National Library (contest won in 1962,
Entries A–F 345
construction began in 1972, and completed in 1992) by Testa, Bulrich, and Cazzaniga
was remarkable for its underground storage of books and sculptured and elevated reading
areas. Also characteristic of this period is the work of Jorge Roberto Alvarez and
Associates, who produced works known for their durability, order, and asceticism.
Among their buildings, SOMISA (1975) met a technological challenge to design all the
building’s parts within a tolerance of three millimeters.
In 1972 Catalinas Norte, in the Retiro area, began again to incorporate the river into
the life of the city. The Conurban building (1973) by the Kocourek studio with
Katzenstein and Llorens uses a curtain wall in the facade facing the river and brick in the
facade looking to the city and is one of the best of the whole complex.
The Cultural Center (1980) in the Recoleta area by Bedel, Benedit, and Testa, a
recycled Franciscan monastery, is today an active popular center of contemporary art,
experimental art galleries, and shops. The complex was completed with the more
whimsical Buenos Aires Design Center (1994) by Testa, Genoud, and Graci.
Since 1991 the Madero docks area (built in 1887–97) has been rehabilitated in one of
the most successful urban interventions in the city’s recent history. The utilitarian
buildings of the dock have been recycled as apartments, restaurants, and shops as a
natural extension of the center of the city. Several new towers have changed the profile of
the city’s skyline. The twin towers (1997) of High Palermo Plaza by Urgell, Fazio, and
Penedo and the studio of Sanchez Gomez, Manteola, and Santos Solsona present an
urban doorway to the Palermo area, enlivened by the Postmodernist and ornamental Alto
Palermo Shopping (1990) by Juan Lopez.
Buenos Aires enters the 21st century immersed in the revolutionary changes in
technology and the process of globalization. The city has successfully implemented new
programs to recuperate areas of the city, open the city to its river, and rehabilitate
buildings in Mayo, Rivadavia, and Corrientes Avenues. In addition, historical
neighborhoods, such as San Telmo and Monserrat, have begun to be rebuilt. All these
actions indicate that Buenos Aires is as interested in preserving its past as it is in
constructing its future. The city, once called the “Paris of South America,” is still
recognized for its European heritage and remains one of the great metropolises of the
world.
Showing posts with label ARGENTINA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ARGENTINA. Show all posts
ARGENTINA
In the late 19th century, a powerful group of politicians and intellectuals known as “The
Generation of the Eighties” incorporated Argentina into a world economy dominated by
the British Empire. The early decades of the 20th century witnessed the transformation of
the social and economic foundations of the country. Administrative and educational
reforms were implemented during the modernization process. Immigration and the
movement of the rural population to the city generated the rapid growth of metropolitan
areas. Concurrently, an ideological break with the Spanish colonial past generated a
cultural identification with the ideas of the French Enlightenment. As a result of a
widespread cultural debate between what was understood as civilization and progress
versus barbarism and savages, the larger cities of the country, particularly Buenos Aires,
were transformed by boulevards, parks, avenues, and building following the Beaux-Arts
tradition.
In Argentina, modernization was implemented by conservative political powers. The
ruling class was confronted with the dilemma of how to incorporate new ideas and how
to deal with an unprecedented situation of quick institutional change and demographic
diversity and growth. This situation generated a reaction in some sectors of society for
the need to preserve the Hispanic past. Consequently, in the first two decades of the 20th
century, parallel to an architectural production dominated by French-educated architects
such as Alejandro Christophersen, the first attempts to generate a national style were
developed.
Martin Noel adopted a neo-Colonial style in his own residence, today the Museum
Fernandez Blanco of Iberoamerican Art (1924). The neo-Colonial style also produced the
Cervantes Theater (1922) by Aranda and Repetto and the Bank of Boston (1924) by Paul
Bell Chambers and Louis Newbery Thomas with a facade inspired by the Spanish
renaissance. The search for authentic cultural roots and a national style was the first
attempt to examine architectural patrimony and to systematically preserve local culture.
The first part of the 20th century was also characterized by other reactions against
Beaux-Arts and academic canons. Art Nouveau appeared through varied manifestations
including Catalan modernism in Rosario by Francisco Roca Simó and in Buenos Aires by
Julián Garcia Nuñez with the notable Spanish Hospital (1906). Other architects who
embraced Italian influences include Mario Palanti, Francisco Gianotti, and Virgilio
Colombo.
The 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris signaled a shift in taste
identified with new materials and architectural types, such as cinemas, bars, banks, and
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 116
hotels. In Buenos Aires, Alejandro Virasoro’s House of Theater (1927), Santander Bank
(1929), and the Equitativa del Plata office building (1929) are key examples of this
tendency. Also important is the Opera Cinema (1936) by Alberto Bourdon.
The transition between Art Deco and Argentinian rationalism is exemplified in
Rosario, with La Comercial de Rosario (1939), a building for offices, a theater, and
apartments by De Lorenzi, Otaola, and Rocca, and the Company of Industry and
Commerce Headquarters (1939) by Arman and Todeschini.
When the military regime of Uriburu took power in 1930, conservative and
authoritarian tendencies desired to build a national identity strong enough to overcome
the diverse mosaic of traditions brought by immigration. Parallel to these efforts, the
transformation of urban culture and new minimum standards of living marked the
transition from the dominance of academic and historicist styles to rational architecture.
Rationalism hence in the 1930s acquired a progressive connotation and increasingly
became a formal modernist alternative adopted even by architects with a traditional
academic education.
Exemplary works in this period in Buenos Aires include the Comega Building (1932)
by Enrique Douillet and Alfredo Joselevich, the Safico (1934) by Walter Moll, and the
Kavanah building (1936) by Sanchez, Lagos, and de la Torre. Broadly considered a
masterpiece of the period, the Kavanah’s refined Art Deco interiors were influenced by
Chicago’s skyscrapers but remained attentive to local characteristics, adaptation to the
site, and innovative technology. Another modernist landmark is the Cinema Rex (1937)
by Alberto Prebish.
In Córdoba, representative of the period is the Sudamerica Building (1938) by Jaime
Roca and Vilar, Sarmiento School (1940) by Juárez Cáceres, and the Allende House
(1936) by Roca.
Argentina also manifests some of the earliest critiques of modernist stylization. The
Austral Group, in its manifesto Will and Act ion (1939), declared that “present architecture is in a
critical moment and lacking the spirit of the initiators.” The group denounced the use of
academicism and so-called narrow-minded functionalism. The Austral Group was
composed of Bonet, Ferrari Hardoy, Kurchan, Le Pera, Ungar, and Zalba. Representative
of the manifesto’s position are the ateliers and housing for artists (1939) in Buenos Aires
by Bonet, Lopez Chas, and Vera Ramos, characterized by the use of Mediterranean
vaults, rich materials, and tectonic variations.
In the 1940s, Peron initiated a plan of industrial production for Argentina. World War
II promoted the industrial development of the country, and architecture became oriented
toward social welfare. Public work was directed to the areas of education, housing, and
health. It was only after World War II that International Style modernism gained
dominance. Between 1942 and 1944, the Austral Group published three influential issues
of the magazine Tecné, pursuing a modernism connected to landscape, climate, and regional
construction materials. An important work of this decade was the Apartment (1942) in
Virrey Del Pino, Belgrano, by Kurchan and Ferrari Hardoy, in which the architects
incorporated a growing tree into the facade.
At the same time, Amancio Williams, with a rigorous and purist aesthetic, created two
masterpieces: the House Over the Brook (1945) in Mar del Plata and studies for a
Suspended Office Building Project (1946). In the late 1940s, the influential organic group
Metron, composed of Tedeschi, Sacriste, Vivanco, Caminos, and Borgato, was created in
Entries A–F 117
Tucumán. Critical of the International Style for its negation of the past and regional
architecture, Metron’s ideas were promulgated by Eduardo Sacriste’s site- and landscapebased
works, including Barrio Jardin Elementary School (1947) and the Gómez Omil
House (1951).
The most representative work of this period is the project, in 1953, for the General San
Martin Theater (1960) in Buenos Aires by Mario Roberto Alvarez and Ruiz.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, institutional works were inspired by Le Corbusier’s
Unite d’Habitation apartment complex in Marseilles (1952). Le Corbusier’s curtain wall,
free plan, pilotis , and sculptural terraces are the dominant features of the Encotel Post Office
and Auditorium (1955) in Buenos Aires by Jose Spencer and the Municipal Building
(1954) in Córdoba by the group SEPRA: Sánchez Elía, Peralta Ramos, and Agostino. The
Civic Center of La Pampa (1956) by Testa, Davinovic, Gaido, and Rossi shows the
influence of Le Corbusier’s Parliament building in Chandigarh, India.
As an alternative to the International Style, the Church of Our Lady of Fátima (1957)
in Martinez (state of Buenos Aires) by Caveri and Ellis reinterpreted regional typologies
and materials.
One of the most important studios of the 1960s and 1970s is Mario Roberto Alvarez
and Associates. Representatives of the professionalism of the group are the Cultural
Center Buenos Aires City (1970) and SOMISA (1975), the headquarters for the steel
company owned by the state. Two seminal pieces of the 1960s are the project for the
National Library (project, 1961; construction, 1972–92) by Clorindo Testa and the
sculptural Bank of London (1966) by Testa, Sánchez Elía, Peralta Ramos, and Agostini.
This bank is considered a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture.
Since the 1960s, the application of new technology and processes of construction
characterized proposals such as the Hospital (1963) in Oran, Salta, by Llauró-Urgell and
Associates. This hospital creates a microclimate within a basic module, allowing for
expansion and, eventually, change of functions.
The 1970s were characterized by a series of relevant competitions, including the
project for the Auditorium of Buenos Aires City (1972), a complex of organic fragments,
by Baudizzone, Erbin, Lestard, Varas, Díaz. Moreover, the Civic Center (1971) for San
Juan by Antonini, Schon, Zemborain and Associates explored flexibility and modules. In
addition, several competitions for skyscrapers were held in Catalinas Norte in Buenos
Aires. The most interesting response is the Conurban building (1973) by Kocourek SRL.
The facade of the building is adapted to the climate and the orientations. The building for
ATC (Argentinean Color TV) by Manteola, Sánchez Gómez, Santos, Solsona, and
Viñoly is considered the most relevant example of the late 1970s for its integration with
the context and the resolution of complex functional requirements.
In the wake of the military government years, the 1980s were characterized by diverse
tendencies, ranging from the search for a rediscovery of Latin American connections to
the revalorization of the urban heritage to architecture as aesthetic experience only.
However, the enriching possibilities opened by a Postmodern condition also brought
frivolity and superficiality. José Ignacio Díaz contributed since the 1970s to transform
and enrich the urban character of Córdoba, the second-largest city in the country. Using
the characteristic brick construction material of the city, Diaz designed and built more
than 120 residential buildings. In the public sector, Miguel Roca’s proposal for Córdoba’s
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 118
center and neighborhoods produced cultural centers and pedestrian malls and recuperated
the river.
The 1990s continued the multiplicity of architectural tendencies. The playfulness and
acceptance of many influences of this period are shown by the hybrid architecture of
Testa, particularly in his complex at the Recoleta Cultural Center (1994). The intention to
insert new architecture without disrupting the urban was demonstrated in Córdoba by the
Nuevocentro Shopping (1990) by Gramática, Guerrero, Morini, Pisani, Rampulla, and
Urtubey. This group also designed the new Justice Palace of Córdoba (1998).
The 1990s was also characterized by a new care for tectonics and finesse in details, as
in the work of the Studio Benadon, Berdichevsky, and Cherny, particularly in the
Organon Argentina offices (1997) in Bajo Belgrano and the CAPSA, Capex, offices
(1997) in Vicente Lopez.
Popular architecture, environmental issues, hybridization, identity, regionalism, and
rehabilitation, all involving both practical and poetic considerations, have been the
dominant elements of Argentinean architecture in the last 20 years. In a country where
economic and cultural dependence is still debated, the late decades have been marked by
an architecture more responsive to ecological and social concerns and the search for the
appropriate use of technology with local resources. The tension between these local
concerns and its universal vocation makes the architecture of the 20th century in
Argentina one of the most vital and interesting in the world.
Generation of the Eighties” incorporated Argentina into a world economy dominated by
the British Empire. The early decades of the 20th century witnessed the transformation of
the social and economic foundations of the country. Administrative and educational
reforms were implemented during the modernization process. Immigration and the
movement of the rural population to the city generated the rapid growth of metropolitan
areas. Concurrently, an ideological break with the Spanish colonial past generated a
cultural identification with the ideas of the French Enlightenment. As a result of a
widespread cultural debate between what was understood as civilization and progress
versus barbarism and savages, the larger cities of the country, particularly Buenos Aires,
were transformed by boulevards, parks, avenues, and building following the Beaux-Arts
tradition.
In Argentina, modernization was implemented by conservative political powers. The
ruling class was confronted with the dilemma of how to incorporate new ideas and how
to deal with an unprecedented situation of quick institutional change and demographic
diversity and growth. This situation generated a reaction in some sectors of society for
the need to preserve the Hispanic past. Consequently, in the first two decades of the 20th
century, parallel to an architectural production dominated by French-educated architects
such as Alejandro Christophersen, the first attempts to generate a national style were
developed.
Martin Noel adopted a neo-Colonial style in his own residence, today the Museum
Fernandez Blanco of Iberoamerican Art (1924). The neo-Colonial style also produced the
Cervantes Theater (1922) by Aranda and Repetto and the Bank of Boston (1924) by Paul
Bell Chambers and Louis Newbery Thomas with a facade inspired by the Spanish
renaissance. The search for authentic cultural roots and a national style was the first
attempt to examine architectural patrimony and to systematically preserve local culture.
The first part of the 20th century was also characterized by other reactions against
Beaux-Arts and academic canons. Art Nouveau appeared through varied manifestations
including Catalan modernism in Rosario by Francisco Roca Simó and in Buenos Aires by
Julián Garcia Nuñez with the notable Spanish Hospital (1906). Other architects who
embraced Italian influences include Mario Palanti, Francisco Gianotti, and Virgilio
Colombo.
The 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris signaled a shift in taste
identified with new materials and architectural types, such as cinemas, bars, banks, and
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 116
hotels. In Buenos Aires, Alejandro Virasoro’s House of Theater (1927), Santander Bank
(1929), and the Equitativa del Plata office building (1929) are key examples of this
tendency. Also important is the Opera Cinema (1936) by Alberto Bourdon.
The transition between Art Deco and Argentinian rationalism is exemplified in
Rosario, with La Comercial de Rosario (1939), a building for offices, a theater, and
apartments by De Lorenzi, Otaola, and Rocca, and the Company of Industry and
Commerce Headquarters (1939) by Arman and Todeschini.
When the military regime of Uriburu took power in 1930, conservative and
authoritarian tendencies desired to build a national identity strong enough to overcome
the diverse mosaic of traditions brought by immigration. Parallel to these efforts, the
transformation of urban culture and new minimum standards of living marked the
transition from the dominance of academic and historicist styles to rational architecture.
Rationalism hence in the 1930s acquired a progressive connotation and increasingly
became a formal modernist alternative adopted even by architects with a traditional
academic education.
Exemplary works in this period in Buenos Aires include the Comega Building (1932)
by Enrique Douillet and Alfredo Joselevich, the Safico (1934) by Walter Moll, and the
Kavanah building (1936) by Sanchez, Lagos, and de la Torre. Broadly considered a
masterpiece of the period, the Kavanah’s refined Art Deco interiors were influenced by
Chicago’s skyscrapers but remained attentive to local characteristics, adaptation to the
site, and innovative technology. Another modernist landmark is the Cinema Rex (1937)
by Alberto Prebish.
In Córdoba, representative of the period is the Sudamerica Building (1938) by Jaime
Roca and Vilar, Sarmiento School (1940) by Juárez Cáceres, and the Allende House
(1936) by Roca.
Argentina also manifests some of the earliest critiques of modernist stylization. The
Austral Group, in its manifesto Will and Act ion (1939), declared that “present architecture is in a
critical moment and lacking the spirit of the initiators.” The group denounced the use of
academicism and so-called narrow-minded functionalism. The Austral Group was
composed of Bonet, Ferrari Hardoy, Kurchan, Le Pera, Ungar, and Zalba. Representative
of the manifesto’s position are the ateliers and housing for artists (1939) in Buenos Aires
by Bonet, Lopez Chas, and Vera Ramos, characterized by the use of Mediterranean
vaults, rich materials, and tectonic variations.
In the 1940s, Peron initiated a plan of industrial production for Argentina. World War
II promoted the industrial development of the country, and architecture became oriented
toward social welfare. Public work was directed to the areas of education, housing, and
health. It was only after World War II that International Style modernism gained
dominance. Between 1942 and 1944, the Austral Group published three influential issues
of the magazine Tecné, pursuing a modernism connected to landscape, climate, and regional
construction materials. An important work of this decade was the Apartment (1942) in
Virrey Del Pino, Belgrano, by Kurchan and Ferrari Hardoy, in which the architects
incorporated a growing tree into the facade.
At the same time, Amancio Williams, with a rigorous and purist aesthetic, created two
masterpieces: the House Over the Brook (1945) in Mar del Plata and studies for a
Suspended Office Building Project (1946). In the late 1940s, the influential organic group
Metron, composed of Tedeschi, Sacriste, Vivanco, Caminos, and Borgato, was created in
Entries A–F 117
Tucumán. Critical of the International Style for its negation of the past and regional
architecture, Metron’s ideas were promulgated by Eduardo Sacriste’s site- and landscapebased
works, including Barrio Jardin Elementary School (1947) and the Gómez Omil
House (1951).
The most representative work of this period is the project, in 1953, for the General San
Martin Theater (1960) in Buenos Aires by Mario Roberto Alvarez and Ruiz.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, institutional works were inspired by Le Corbusier’s
Unite d’Habitation apartment complex in Marseilles (1952). Le Corbusier’s curtain wall,
free plan, pilotis , and sculptural terraces are the dominant features of the Encotel Post Office
and Auditorium (1955) in Buenos Aires by Jose Spencer and the Municipal Building
(1954) in Córdoba by the group SEPRA: Sánchez Elía, Peralta Ramos, and Agostino. The
Civic Center of La Pampa (1956) by Testa, Davinovic, Gaido, and Rossi shows the
influence of Le Corbusier’s Parliament building in Chandigarh, India.
As an alternative to the International Style, the Church of Our Lady of Fátima (1957)
in Martinez (state of Buenos Aires) by Caveri and Ellis reinterpreted regional typologies
and materials.
One of the most important studios of the 1960s and 1970s is Mario Roberto Alvarez
and Associates. Representatives of the professionalism of the group are the Cultural
Center Buenos Aires City (1970) and SOMISA (1975), the headquarters for the steel
company owned by the state. Two seminal pieces of the 1960s are the project for the
National Library (project, 1961; construction, 1972–92) by Clorindo Testa and the
sculptural Bank of London (1966) by Testa, Sánchez Elía, Peralta Ramos, and Agostini.
This bank is considered a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture.
Since the 1960s, the application of new technology and processes of construction
characterized proposals such as the Hospital (1963) in Oran, Salta, by Llauró-Urgell and
Associates. This hospital creates a microclimate within a basic module, allowing for
expansion and, eventually, change of functions.
The 1970s were characterized by a series of relevant competitions, including the
project for the Auditorium of Buenos Aires City (1972), a complex of organic fragments,
by Baudizzone, Erbin, Lestard, Varas, Díaz. Moreover, the Civic Center (1971) for San
Juan by Antonini, Schon, Zemborain and Associates explored flexibility and modules. In
addition, several competitions for skyscrapers were held in Catalinas Norte in Buenos
Aires. The most interesting response is the Conurban building (1973) by Kocourek SRL.
The facade of the building is adapted to the climate and the orientations. The building for
ATC (Argentinean Color TV) by Manteola, Sánchez Gómez, Santos, Solsona, and
Viñoly is considered the most relevant example of the late 1970s for its integration with
the context and the resolution of complex functional requirements.
In the wake of the military government years, the 1980s were characterized by diverse
tendencies, ranging from the search for a rediscovery of Latin American connections to
the revalorization of the urban heritage to architecture as aesthetic experience only.
However, the enriching possibilities opened by a Postmodern condition also brought
frivolity and superficiality. José Ignacio Díaz contributed since the 1970s to transform
and enrich the urban character of Córdoba, the second-largest city in the country. Using
the characteristic brick construction material of the city, Diaz designed and built more
than 120 residential buildings. In the public sector, Miguel Roca’s proposal for Córdoba’s
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 118
center and neighborhoods produced cultural centers and pedestrian malls and recuperated
the river.
The 1990s continued the multiplicity of architectural tendencies. The playfulness and
acceptance of many influences of this period are shown by the hybrid architecture of
Testa, particularly in his complex at the Recoleta Cultural Center (1994). The intention to
insert new architecture without disrupting the urban was demonstrated in Córdoba by the
Nuevocentro Shopping (1990) by Gramática, Guerrero, Morini, Pisani, Rampulla, and
Urtubey. This group also designed the new Justice Palace of Córdoba (1998).
The 1990s was also characterized by a new care for tectonics and finesse in details, as
in the work of the Studio Benadon, Berdichevsky, and Cherny, particularly in the
Organon Argentina offices (1997) in Bajo Belgrano and the CAPSA, Capex, offices
(1997) in Vicente Lopez.
Popular architecture, environmental issues, hybridization, identity, regionalism, and
rehabilitation, all involving both practical and poetic considerations, have been the
dominant elements of Argentinean architecture in the last 20 years. In a country where
economic and cultural dependence is still debated, the late decades have been marked by
an architecture more responsive to ecological and social concerns and the search for the
appropriate use of technology with local resources. The tension between these local
concerns and its universal vocation makes the architecture of the 20th century in
Argentina one of the most vital and interesting in the world.
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