It seems almost impossible to imagine that a single public initiative could have spawned most of the national highways we have today in Argentina, established tourism as an economic driver for the country, consolidated the national oil company YPF against foreign competition, and driven a large part of the development of Argentine modern architecture.
Yet it is entirely plausible when we look at one of the largest territorial interventions in the country's history—a vanguard of modernity that established the automobile as a mass means of transportation in our region.
When designing outside of urban areas, where property lines are not constrained by party walls and adjacent buildings do not dictate the layout, some of the most honest architectural responses emerge regarding how to intervene and what stance to take toward the surrounding landscape.
The following four architectural projects located in the Province of Córdoba, shaped by the topographical conditions and the specific characteristics of their surroundings, establish a profound sense of belonging with the landscape. By blurring the line between the natural and the artificial, they offer valuable tools and insights for designing on suburban plots.
On Tuesday, July 27, it was announced that Eladio Dieste's Atlántida Church, one of his most renowned works in Uruguay, has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have opened up new possibilities for documenting built works. Aerial photography reveals aspects of a project that are often difficult to capture from a pedestrian perspective. Much like roof plans, aerial views more clearly illustrate design decisions regarding site placement, orientation, typology, relationship with the immediate surroundings, and pre-existing structures, among other aspects.
The Bicentennial Argentine Credit Program for Single-Family Housing, commonly known as PRO.CRE.AR, is a program created in 2012 by the national government of Argentina to support and incentivize the construction of new housing in the country through subsidized loans. Through this program, many families gained the opportunity to build their first home of their own, which in turn generated an increase in the demand for local design and construction. Consequently, these housing loans also opened doors for young firms and studios to produce and build local architecture, navigating the limitations imposed by the loan's financial framework and its constraints on floor area and timeline.
While many projects consciously avoid adopting a definitive functional layout—intentionally leaning toward the indefinability of spaces—in many others, a clear division of uses and programmatic synthesis serve as key tools to organize, prioritize, and optimize spatial flow.
In collective housing projects, apartments, and residential complexes, design intentions regarding spatial qualities and atmospheres typically focus on the spaces where residents spend most of their time: the interiors of the housing units and, when available, common areas like gyms or multipurpose rooms. Circulation spaces, by contrast, are often treated merely as “transitional areas,” meaning they frequently address functional requirements rather than spatial experiences.
Tools developed for woodworking, along with new production, milling, and treatment techniques, have gradually yielded highly diverse, high-quality products in various sizes, strengths, tones, shapes, and colors. These advancements have allowed wood, as a resource, to meet a wide range of construction needs, serving as structural support, building envelopes, cladding, or furniture in a vast number of architectural projects.
In Latin American countries, the most common method for distinguishing rural areas from urban spaces is based on analyzing the number of residents in a given zone, classifying as "rural" any locality with a population under 2,000. In these contexts, low density and scattered development typically allow the natural landscape to predominate over the built environment.
When it comes to housing typologies, the term duplex –lends itself to multiple interpretations, often leading to ambiguous applications and uses. The definition of the concept depends primarily on the country or region in which it is used, generally allowing for two main interpretations. First, a duplex can refer to a two-story housing unit with levels connected by an internal staircase. This definition usually applies to apartments and residences in countries like Spain or Canada, which are typically found in urban centers. Alternatively, a duplex can describe a specific type of project where two homes are joined side-by-side, each having its own individual entrance but sharing a central wall. Generally, the design of these houses is defined by an intentional axial symmetry, functioning as twin homes with the same features and floor plan layout. This type of duplex housing is particularly common in Argentina, Bolivia, the United Kingdom, Australia, and parts of the United States.
