Hoek 公寓改造项目丨阿根廷拉普拉塔丨Estudio Linea

Firm： Estudio Linea

Type： Residential › Apartment

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2021

SIZE： 1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

BUDGET： $10K - 50K

Hoek is the name of the reform project of a high-rise Ph from the 1950s, which is located on the emblematic Diagonal 80 in the city of La Plata.

The city was facing an urban and demographic growth after its foundation. In 1903 the railway station was moved to its current location, the intersection of Avenues 1 and 44. Diagonal 80 is also part of that intersection of streets, making it a relevant commercial and connection route and which also remains part of the city’s architectural heritage such as the Gibert Palace, an icon of Art Nouveau.

The renovation project was carried out entirely during the pandemic lockdown period. Between the financial fluctuations and the emerging paradigms, we conceived an architectural project where the economic aspect was to promote the use and integration with strategic interventions: the Ph to be reformed, located on the second and last floor of the building, presented years of lack of maintenance and had suffered spatial modifications that led to deteriorated building conditions.

We started with a research work on old plans to interpret the potential that the property had. Hoek quickly became an adventure of constant discoveries.

The entire reform was crossed by questions about ways of living in isolation and about what post-pandemic life would be like, which is why the first decision was to recover a patio that had completely lost its functionality: we made way for light and vegetation knowing that the blooming street trees of Diagonal 80 would reach the patio of this second floor. Later, another patio was cleared, by moving the kitchen we managed to create a more permeable relation between the social space of the house and the exterior.

Despite the difficulties that the process implied, we recovered the calcareous floor of the corridor that accompanies the circulation route and connection of all the spaces of the PH. The wooden floors were also recovered, as well as a sector of a colored calcareous floor that was discovered under many layers.

Finally, in the square meters of an old bathroom we organize the toilet, pantry and a full bathroom. Simple and custom furniture, both in the bathroom and in the kitchen, accompanied the ideas of functionality and new spatiality conceived for Hoek.

Hoek began and ended in the demanding context of the 2020-2021 period. The relation between the old and the new was searched by the constructive resolution, sensitive to the idea that more open and kind forms will house the upcoming life.