LOCATION: Santa Fe 2470, Rosario, Argentina.

 

PROJECT

Matías Imbern

Marcelo Mirani

 

TEAM

Andrés Bertoni [Team Leader]

María Pía Forno [Project Coordinator]

Martina Taddeo [Images/Drawings]

Lucio Herrero [Drawings]

Addis Magalí Hoffmann [Images]

 

YEAR 2024

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The project is located adjacent to the Central Area on Avenida Santa Fe, a major thoroughfare in the urban fabric of the city of Rosario, and two blocks from Bv. Oroño, another important urban corridor characteristic of the city. The building mass is organized around a central courtyard with common spaces on the ground floor, located to the north in the center of the lot. It consists of a 10-story tower of residential units at the front and a 2-level volume at the rear.

The project, as its name suggests, is characterized mainly by the strong presence of arches (architectural and constructive elements traditionally used to bear loads) and its spacious double-height terraced balconies.

Here, the use of the arch takes on a formal architectural sense, transferring the dynamism and smoothness inherent in its geometric shape not only to the view of its facades and party walls but also to the floor plans of units and common spaces. Additionally, the use of the half-arch helps support the cantilever loads of its deep balconies by acting as a kind of corbel, replicating the shape of the bending moment diagram of a cantilever.

These balconies, some measuring up to 1.80 meters in depth by 3 meters in width, are interspersed in plan and height, creating a pattern of fullness and emptiness and ensuring that all balconies have double height. This logic of intercalation is carried into the interior of the residential units, allowing for a wide range of typological variations. From the first to the fourth floor, there are loft-type units and one-bedroom apartments, with two alternatives for each floor depending on whether it is an even or odd floor. From the fifth to the tenth floor, there are two-bedroom semi-floor apartments, also with respective alternatives on even and odd floors. In the rear volume, two two-level houses are accommodated, with accessible terraces and internal courtyards.

Beyond alluding to its spacious double-height balconies, the concept of terracing takes on another meaning. By definition, terracing involves stepping the surface of a slope into accessible spaces. In this case, instead of terracing a horizontal plane, this operation is applied to the vertical plane of the front and rear, creating a setback from the building line that partially orients both facades to the east, towards Avenida Santa Fe.