In 1986, an urban design competition was held in Argentina titled “Ideas Urbano-Arquitectónicas para Buenos Aires” (Urban-Architectural Ideas for Buenos Aires), more commonly known as “Las Veinte Ideas” (The Twenty Ideas). Organized as part of a cooperation program between the Community of Madrid and the Municipality of Buenos Aires during the mayoral administration of Facundo Suárez Lastra, this call for entries generated a high concentration of design concepts. With the participation of more than 400 architects, it yielded a total of 120 proposals for the city. Although unbuilt, these ideas hold significant theoretical and historical relevance; in many cases, they served as the seed or starting point for the development of subsequent urban projects.
This article aims to gather the most relevant proposals submitted to the competition—including entries by Mario Roberto Álvarez, Clorindo Testa, Tony Diaz, Lestard, Varas, Manteola, Sanchez Gomez, Santos, and Solsona, among others—contextualizing them to identify the urban themes that, like a prelude, anticipated today's most pressing issues.
“The '20 urban-architectural ideas for Buenos Aires' were much more than 20 proposals. They represent the first impetus to think about our city from democracy, through a broad call for reflection and proposals from the professionals who live and work in it..” Facundo Suárez Lastra, Mayor of Buenos Aires in the year of the Competition.
