Maure Houses 3 and 4

Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas

Maure Houses 3 and 4

Ignacio Szulman arquitecto

STRUCTURALIST
Ing. Eduardo Diner

IMAGES
Santiago Vigano

DOCUMENTATION
Arq. Sol Basile, Arq. Hernán Robredo

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Arq. Pedro Cabrera, Arq. Clarisa Brito

COLLABORATION WITH CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Arq. Florencia Brandt, Sofía Catalano, Arq. Lucas Cousiño

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Pedro Cabrera, Arq. Clarisa Brito

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Arq. Ignacio Szulman y Arq. Valentín Pedroza

MODEL
Arq. Angeles Di Iorio

PROGRAM
Vivienda Unifamiliar

MANUFACTURERS
Mosaicos Rossi

AREA
10764 ft²

YEAR
2022

LOCATION
Buenos Aires, Argentina

CATEGORY
Houses

Were they born at the same time? Do they have the same parents? Did they change over time?

Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas

A significant number of sister houses feature our city and other cities and towns in the country. Paired houses, which appear to be the same, but are not.

Either to distinguish one from the other, or to meet the needs of different customers, or because they were the same and changed over time.

Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas

In Maure, in the first instance, we had access to a first lot on which we made a project of three houses. Once presented to the municipality and already advanced in the process, we had the possibility of accessing the adjoining lot to enlarge the project.

The first sketches of this new project tended towards unity with the previous one, but the difficulty of being able to make them compatible, since one had two floors and the other required three, meant that the result of the unit was not favorable.

Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas

So we resort to this idea of sister houses, houses that cannot be exactly the same because they respond to different needs, but that want to complement each other in order to enhance themselves.

So we decided that the volume would be similar, respecting the total height of the complex and the dimensions of the courtyard corridor in the middle, but differentiating them in materiality. One set is white, with high ceilings and vaulted ceilings. The other is brick and wooden windows.

Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas

The corridor courtyard is another of the guidelines that make up the project. Reviewing the history of housing complexes in the city of Buenos Aires, we find that the first low-income housing units were grouped in “conventillos”.

These were rooms that ventilated and shared a single courtyard from which access was made. The “coventillo” evolved towards the “Cité” model where the houses ventilate towards a single corridor/courtyard that connects with the street and serves as access.

Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas

It's an outdoor space that has something of a street and a bit of a patio. In some examples, such as the Pasaje General Paz, located in the city of Buenos Aires, the corridor connects two streets, forming a kind of private passage.

However, these dwellings had the problem of facing each other while lacking intimacy.

Our intention was to reformulate this corridor to the current times.

While in the Cité model it was perpendicular to the street and all the rooms were ventilated and illuminated, in Maure's houses we made it parallel so that it serves only as a secondary patio to access the units and to generate cross ventilation.

Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas


Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas
Maure Houses 3 and 4
© Javier Agustín Rojas


Maure Houses 3 and 4
Model 01
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Model 02
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Model 03
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Facade


Maure Houses 3 and 4
Section AA
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Section BB
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Section CC
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Section DD


Maure Houses 3 and 4
Plan - 1st floor
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Plan - Ground floor
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Plan - 2nd floor
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Plan - 3rd floor
Maure Houses 3 and 4
Plan - Roof