Casa de Estudios para Artistas, Buenos Aires, Rationalist architecture building at Suipacha and Paraguay Streets, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Casa de Estudios para Artistas is a rationalist building in Retiro, Buenos Aires, designed in 1938 by Antoni Bonet i Castellana, Horacio Vera Ramos and Abel López Chas. Its reinforced concrete frame holds four commercial units with wavy fronts at street level and seven apartments over two floors, one with a mezzanine used as a rest area. The terrace was planned for gatherings, and glass bricks in the facade bring in daylight.
Spanish architect Antonio Bonet designed this structure in 1938 as the Austral Group brought Le Corbusier's principles to Argentina. This project became a turning point for introducing modern architectural thinking to Buenos Aires.
The building was designed to be rented out to artists who installed their studios there, turning it into a small social hub. The Austral Group also created the BKF chair specifically for use in these studios. The ground-floor commercial units have undulating fronts with metal and glass display windows.
The building stands at the corner of Suipacha and Paraguay streets in Retiro, with four commercial units at street level and seven apartments on two upper floors. The ground-floor shopfronts have a wavy profile with metal bulkheads and glass-textured display windows, so look along the base of the facade to see how each unit curves differently.
The corner features an electrically operated sunshade made of metal sheets, a detail that stands out on the ochava. The BKF chair, later known worldwide as the Butterfly chair, was designed by Austral Group members specifically for use in this building's studios.
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