Three projects to extend existing small housing units came to the studio at almost the same time, and we decided, in our approach, to construct an urban series of disconnected things where commonality would take precedence over difference. The three cases had a good deal in common: pre-existing homes that form part of shared structures (in other words, none was a single-family home/building); the need to renovate and expand each one to house a family; clients of different nationalities; units located far from the street, near the middle of their respective blocks, in residential Buenos Aires neighborhoods.

We used those commonalities in our work as a means to interrogate certain conditions of inhabitability that occur throughout the city, conditions such as the urban grid— a pattern with which to interact and alter slightly. The projects took shape through conversations, delving into the tension at play in the attempt to define identity through the place where one lives.

To experiment with making design decisions collectively, we organized a “project assembly” early in the process: an encounter where the future inhabitants interacted.
At that meeting, we, the architects, designed the dynamic of the exchange rather than provide solutions to the problems that surfaced at the encounter. We were thus able to move beyond the conventional client-professional relationship and operate—if only briefly—more horizontally to enable a deliberate practice to give rise to unforeseen perspectives.

Patio Balivian

In Patio Balivian, we transformed a small third-floor walk-up apartment that had once been the porter’s unit. Located on the top floor of a building with party wall on either side, the unit is surrounded by rooftop decks for common use. The height of the unit in a neighborhood of low houses afforded wide views of the urban landscape.

The unit’s surface area would be expanded to encroach on a deck on the same level as the indoor space in order to meet the needs of a couple awaiting a child. The total surface area available was small, and the tension between the indoor area needed and the outdoor space desired meant that the patio had to be customized to meet an array of needs: a place of to be used and to walked through, a place to provide views and natural light , but also a place with that plays a structural role in the construction.

The addition was constructed using light-weight materials that could hold the weight of a green roof with plants to be reached from the patio (the green roof would be constructed during a second phase of the project). La nueva ampliación se construyó con un sistema de construcción liviano apuntando a sostener una cubierta verde de plantas en su terraza con acceso desde el patio, que quedó para una segunda etapa de obra.Visual axes organize the layout of the unit’s different rooms. A diagonal axis that begins at the entrance encompasses the greatest single dimension of the unit and marks the path to walk through it. Another axis connects the patio with the common space of the dining and living room area, joining the interior and exterior space and providing long views of the city.