The “casa chorizo” typology, from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, is very characteristic of Buenos Aires. It represents a challenge for the contemporary housing parameters, given its original distribution of consecutive, connected rooms, usually lacking direct sunlight and natural ventilation.

Like most of these houses, PH José Mármol had already undergone two renovations, which only aimed to solve the immediate needs of the family.

Initially, the objectives of this new project were to find space within the property for a new yoga studio for the owner to teach there and to solve some minor construction issues.

However, this was only the starting point, and we quickly saw the opportunity to present the client with a much more ambitious project that would change how the whole house looked and functioned with only a few strategic moves.

By renovating the existing court and adding a new one on the first floor, we were able to improve the rooms around them and enhance the connection between exterior and interior spaces. The yoga studio was designed as a flexible room: a uniform work surface and a perpendicular lighting surface, filtered out by micro-perforated sheet blinds.

On the ground floor, previously segmented by an abrupt change of flooring, the space came together by the use of neutral materials and colors (used throughout the house), and a tiled floor with a unique central pattern that works as a large mat over which different situations may coexist.

Se buscó también revalorizar la construcción original editando las huellas acumuladas de las intervenciones anteriores, como cielorrasos suspendidos, ventanas de aluminio y pisos flotantes, dando protagonismo a materiales tradicionales como el ladrillo, las estructuras de hierro, y los pisos graníticos, pero re-pensados con un lenguaje actual.