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housing for the masses: barrio nazca, 1923

Barrio Nazca, 384 units • Villa Santa Rita
Nazca & Álvarez Jonte

Another boxy neighborhood built by the Compañía de Construcciones Modernas (CCM). Modifications in Barrio Emilio Mitre were so drastic that most traces of the 1920s had been erased. Fortunately, other CCM projects look just like they did 80 years ago.

Boxes were built non-stop over the space of 5 city blocks. Big boxes, little boxes, lots o’ boxes. In spite of the monotony, I’m actually beginning to like it… the design is growing on me. But imagine packing almost 400 identical units into such a small space. How do you distinguish your box from the neighbor’s? The CCM came up with a nice solution: build adjoining duplexes & vary the decoration on the upper level. A whole set of distinct patterns is to be found in all of the CCM-built barrios: straight lines, triangles, circles, waves, it’s all there.

Buenos Aires, Villa Santa Rita, Barrio Nazca, 1923
Buenos Aires, Villa Santa Rita, Barrio Nazca, 1923
Buenos Aires, Villa Santa Rita, Barrio Nazca, 1923
Buenos Aires, Villa Santa Rita, Barrio Nazca, 1923

Corner units were designed differently from the cookie-cutter mold & are generally larger:

Buenos Aires, Villa Santa Rita, Barrio Nazca, 1923
Buenos Aires, Villa Santa Rita, Barrio Nazca, 1923

The following unit is inspired. The owners have updated the look, maintaining the original windows, shutters & doors but making the façade sleek & modern. In fact, when I saw this I thought that it could have easily been built during this decade. So far, it’s the only upgrade I’ve seen which respects the original form of the building. Love it:

Buenos Aires, Villa Santa Rita, Barrio Nazca, 1923

Direct link → Master list of all Housing for the Masses posts.

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