BUILDING NIGHTS IN BUENOS AIRES
INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE PROJECT - MASTERPLAN
LOCATION: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA YEAR: 2017 - THE BERLAGE CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDIES IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN, TU DELFT
TEAM: MYRSINI ALEXANDRIDI, AGNIESZKA DABEK, PABLO DE SOLA MONTIEL, MANOLIS VENIERAKIS,
TUTORS: Sanne van den Breemer, Hugo Corbett, SALOMON FRAUSTO, Marcus Kempers, Flavio Janches
EXHIBITIONS: THE BERLAGE: PROJECT GLOBAL EXHIBITION, FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, TU DELFT 09/2017
Within the given thematic of “Building Nights: Designing for the 24-hour City,” the project seeks to address a cliché that is increasingly present in urban design discourse in these global cities, each with their own highly specific nocturnal cultures and overcome the distinction between the traditional, well-established “9-to-5 city” and its counterpart, the ever-changing, liminal “24-hour city.” The “9-to-5” lifestyle can extend well beyond dark, but nevertheless corresponds to the raising and the setting of the sun; the true “24-hour city” ignores these diurnal rhythms. The industrious “24-hour city” sustains the picturesque “9-to-5 city,” in a context of global trade, finance, and tourism. “Nuisance” occurs when these two cities spatially intersect, when their respective denizens and business interests interact when daily rhythms fall out of sync — often at night when the “9-to-5 city” is at its most precious.
Continuing a tradition of riverside innovation in Buenos Aires, a “24-hour kilometer” is programmed alongside Darsena F, where the soon-to-be converted Arturo Illia highway meets the city’s riverfront. This “highline” makes a direct connection between the genteel, well-established “9-to-5 city center,” with its elegant avenues and city blocks, and the boisterous, ever-changing “24-hour riverfront,” with its super clubs and mixed industry. Like nearby Puerto Madero downstream, Darsena F compensates for the spatial and commercial deficiencies of the city center; unlike Puerto Madero, the development attempts to consolidate and enhance an existing nocturnal culture. By also making connections to the informal settlement at Villa 31 under the highway, the project aims to create a vital new piece of the city which gives civic form to this temporal and programmatic volatility.
Buenos Aires is characterized by the dichotomy of two urban conditions: the grid, and the riverfront. The grid city is a daytime city, albeit one in which traditional lifestyles and daily routines extends well into the night; it is sustained and complemented by the constantly dynamic 24h city, which occurs along the riverfront. This dichotomy of time offers the opportunity to the 24 hours’ city to appropriate parts of the city as connection points between the grid and the riverfront.
Acknowledging the fact of temporality and unexpectability, the majority of the project site does not have designated distribution of programs. The masterplan allows flexibility and changeability on both building structure and uses level. The permanent spine of the masterplan is based on rigidly defined public squares, preserved elements of port infrastructure such as existing silos and the night clubs. For the areas in between, we propose three stripes/zones of mixed programs layered horizontally. These zones are creating a horizontal transition between the daily activity of the city with the night activity of the waterfront. Darsena F becomes the gateway to the riverfront, which consolidates an image of the waterfront city and celebrates its dynamic twenty-four-hour rhythms.
A system of canopies is extended all over the masterplan area to facilitate below it a network of open free public space that runs through the buildings merged with pockets of green spaces, sports areas and accessible passages, that can be used according to will, unifying the whole area. A universal grid of 10x10 meters is applied universally, around the existing silos and the industrial sheds, serving as the minimum infrastructure for this development. The grid accommodates two types of metal columns and canopies. The thin one can function as a light shading system, whereas the normal one can provide structure for buildings.