Pedro Moran 3851 / MMCV

Curated by ArchDaily

Architects: MMCV
Year: 2014
Photographs:Daniela Mac Adden

Text description provided by the architects. Located in the center of the block in a residential area of Villa Devoto in Buenos Aires, is this apartment building on a triple lot. The project for this building had two stages: the first, older, belonging to an earlier period of the architecture office, where we worked exclusively on perfecting the plan for its possible real estate development; and a more current second stage where we worked on the existing base developing the envelope with particular attention to the facade.

While in the total volume of the building we propose some setbacks and overhangs on the sides, leading to expansions, the facade reflects the design process in stages while at the same time it is a product of its construction system. The whole facade works horizontally expressing the exposed concrete slabs that mark the four levels of apartments and vertically with inclined planes changing direction, in a narrow volume that takes the width of the lot, the total building height and 0.60 meters of depth, which are absorbed from the usable floor area, to allow the play of vertical planes. This operation allowed to blur the symmetry that the plan brought from its original layout where there were two apartments per floor with expansions of the living rooms to the front and the openings of the bedrooms along the back of the building.

These inclined planes occur in two locations: in the kitchen-dining room and laundry, to the front, as these are the environments that lend themselves the most to yield plan area, unlike the living rooms where we sought to take advantage of the entire surface and achieve full transparency of its boundaries. Thus, in the front there is a more opaque and solid area in the center part which contains the laundries, kitchens and grills, and another transparent and empty area towards the ends, with the expansions and living rooms that take advantage of the setback on the sides which serves as a buffer for some cross ventilation in the bedrooms.

Inside, we keep a complete continuity of the floor and ceiling planes throughout the surface of the plan, with an overall height of 2.60 meters, the result of the construction technique developed by the office, with a sandwich of joists and subfloor of 0.40 meters, where all services are concentrated; the use of interior and exterior framing from floor to ceiling avoiding openings; and the resolution of the concrete structure as a defining material of the project that allows the formation of an open ground floor from a "transition plan" with beams 0.60 meters high on average, with variable widths between 0.60 and 1.00 meter, that enable to vary the arrangement and section of the columns on the base and development of the building.

The ground floor is open, with circular columns, the continuous ceiling over the whole surface, and the transparent landing stripped of light fixtures that are incorporated into the handrails. On the sides are the garages, and in the back there is a common room, with a particular sector projected onto the pool in a black volume that works as a spa and fitness area.