Juan Campanini Josefina Sposito is a young architectural studio based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The studio has completed a small apartment building in a residential neighborhood of the Argentinian capital that was financed by residents. The pleasing utilitarian structure, veiled behind its anodized aluminum cladding, adds to the heterogeneous landscape of the city.
Juan Campanini Josefina Sposito’s (JCJS) apartment building on Virrey Avilés Street in Buenos Aires was developed using a legal tool known as ‘fideicomiso’. This is a kind of fiduciary contract based on trust that gained in popularity after the Argentinian financial crisis of 2001. As a way of bypassing bureaucracy, with fideicomiso the collective assets of a group of residents are used to finance the development of typically small-scale buildings — importantly, architects are afforded more control, both creatively and practically. For the new building on Virrey Avilés Street, this method of financing enabled JCJS to realize the design of essential requirements as specified by the owners; moreover, the studio participated in every stage of the process, from purchasing the land to the building’s construction.
The building sits on a triangular city block in the residential neighborhood of Colegiales (the triangular block is unusual in Buenos Aires’ mainly square city block arrangement). The plot is described by JCJS as having a standard 8.66-meter-wide (28.4-feet-wide) front, the most representative plot size across the city. Historically, this curious measurement represents the width of a standard house built in Argentina and Uruguay in the late 19th and early 20th century. The measurement is based on a vara, an old Spanish unit — each standard house measured 10 varas in width which equates to 8.66 meters.
Juan Campanini Josefina Sposito incorporated a two-meter-high (6.6-feet-high) wall in the building’s design as a way of defining the plot and mediating between the scale of the street and the surroundings. This wall includes a car gate and main entrance door. The building’s front stands 1.5 meters (5 feet) behind the wall. The facade’s anodized aluminum cladding gives the building a homogenous and pleasing utilitarian aspect — it provides the structure with an unembellished and unified exterior, one that reveals little about the interior.
An open-plan ground floor contains the elevator, basement stairs, and ducts. To the rear, a concrete staircase is positioned between two gardens — its landings provide access to two apartments per floor (with six apartments in total).
Blue pillars and blue mesh gateways offer a colorful contrast within the concrete communal areas. Apartments are entered via a small terrace — extending from the rear to the front of the building, spaces are bright (having two large front-facing windows) and benefit from cross-ventilation. Each typical floor plan is arranged symmetrically with a central core placed three meters (10 feet) from the building’s front — housing the bathroom, kitchen, and a wardrobe, the core’s strategic placement ensures privacy.
The concrete staircase leads to the rooftop with two large terraces. A strip of greenery separates the terraces from the building’s front facade. “From this height, the neighborhood’s landscape emerges and the project stands as a single part of the heterogeneous landscape of the city,” says JCJS.
Gross floor area: 450 square meters (4,844 square feet)
