Además Arquitectura encloses Buenos Aires house with wall for "introspective approach"

Argentina studio Además Arquitectura has completed a blocky concrete house protected by a rounded privacy wall in a suburban area of Buenos Aires.

Casa Alba II is a 248-square-metre (2,670-square feet) house located in the city's Ezeiza-Canning neighbourhood.

The house was given a wall that curves around the corner of the 0.3-acre lot, serving as both a boundary and a space-generating element.

"Casa Alba II explores the wall as an architectural device that constructs privacy while redefining the relationship between domestic life and the city," Además Arquitectura told Dezeen.

"Drawing on the legacy of Luis Barragán, the project adopts an introspective approach, turning inward to create a controlled and atmospheric interior world."

"Rather than a secondary element, the wall becomes the central architectural device, organizing views, light and circulation," the studio continued. "The house unfolds inward, with each space relating back to this perimeter condition."

The perimeter wall serves to distance the residence from its suburban surroundings, filtering visual and spatial connections and reflecting natural light indirectly onto the interior of the wall into the house through large windows.

Completed in 2024, the program is arranged in a series of volumes that run diagonally to the street, oriented toward a central intersection and running north to south.

A central axis separates the public and private areas, with three private sleeping areas on the west side of the house.

The social spaces – the living, dining and kitchen areas – are arranged in an open plan on the west side of the axis, connecting to the garage and flowing out to a 41-square metre (44-square metre) semi-covered porch on the north end of the house.

Built almost entirely out of exposed concrete, the design centres on material continuity and constructive clarity with a reduced palette that allows the spatial and atmospheric qualities to take precedence, the studio explained.

"The exterior wall reinforces the building's monolithic presence, while inside, the same material defines space with minimal intervention," the team said.

"Dark flooring and furniture are introduced to contrast with the concrete, intensifying the perception of light, shadow and texture."

In addition to a spatial device, the wall assists the house with passive cooling, thereby reducing solar exposure, while the mirrored north and south patios allow for ventilation, drawing cool breezes across the rectangular pool on the north side, through the interiors.

Meanwhile, the concrete acts as a thermal mass during the cooler months, keeping the house at a stable warm temperature.

"[The project] highlighted the importance of precision in geometry, structure and openings when working with a limited material palette and a restrained formal language," the studio said.

"The experience also led to a pursuit of a more introspective domestic condition without relinquishing oriented views, understanding the house as both a refuge and an expansive space simultaneously."

Other residential projects recently built around Buenos Aires include a partially submerged house with a green roof in the forest of Costa Esmeralda by Gonzalo Bardach, the renovation of a 1980s house in Campo Chico with a greenhouse addition by BHY Arquitectos and the addition of a "suspended glass box" to a 1980s house in Los Cardales by Danil Canda.

The photography is by Federico Cairoli.

Project credits:

Architecture: ADEMÁS Arquitectura
Team: Leandro Gallo, Florencia Speroni, Amparo Feito, Carla Porta, Agostina Conesa, Delfina Galeano and Gabriel Z
Illustrations: Lara Falcón

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