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Architects: IR arquitectura
- Area: 180 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Fernando Schapochnik
Text description provided by the architects. Peaches Besares is a renovation and extension of a house in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Saavedra. The context is a neighborhood of low-rise houses and few consolidated buildings. The area is a mix of new and long-time residents who spend their days around one of the most active parks in the city, located just a few blocks away.
The original construction consisted of two one-bedroom residential units on the ground floor. The existing structure was built using the classic load-bearing masonry technique and vaulted ceilings, resulting in small, fragmented spaces with relatively small openings to the street. The design strategy aims to make the most of these spaces, largely defined by their own construction conditions, and seek spatial amplitude in areas where the lighting and ventilation conditions are more favorable.
With this strategy, significant effort is avoided to accommodate the given conditions. The more public and dynamic areas of the homes are developed on the upper floors, contained within simple volumes that complete the corner. The positioning of the boxes and their material condition allows for the creation of sequences of spaces with different characteristics.
The terraces are enclosed outward with micro-perforated corrugated sheets, creating contained and private outdoor spaces. The living areas have a direct relationship with the street through windows of varying sizes that obscure views thanks to the same sheet material. The houses ultimately become a sequence of interconnected spaces that adapt their uses according to their natural conditions.
The entire expansion was prefabricated in the workshop using steel frame structures. These were assembled on-site, taking advantage of the existing structure, some specific metal reinforcements, and a large transition beam that supports the cantilever. The details of the connections between parts, with the carpentry, and with the existing construction were developed artisanally to maintain fine control over the textures and neutrality of the expansion.
