Modernism played an undeniable role in the renewal of architectural ideals, contributing a new attitude toward understanding new ways of living, construction techniques, and aesthetics, marking profound changes in the general perception of the world. In Argentina, while it is complex to define modern architectural production periodically, it is possible to mention some architects who began, starting in the 1920s, to engage with these ideas. The intellectual contributions and architectural creations of Alejandro Virasoro, Alberto Prebisch, Ernesto Vautier, Fermín Beretervide, Wladimiro Acosta, Alejo Martinez, Antonio and Carlos Vilar, Juan Kurchan, Jorge Ferrari Hardoy, Antonio Bonet, Abel López Chas, Eduardo Catalano, Eduardo Sacriste, and Amancio Williams, among others, often included original approaches associated with new modes of thought, manifesting an architecture resulting from the analysis of the local and regional conditions of their cities.
In residential architecture, particularly in the case of houses, dealing with specific clients and smaller scales made many of them an ideal field for reflection and experimentation on new modes of living, understanding it as the perfect opportunity for architectural experimentation. Thus, to this day, many houses designed by the architects as mentioned earlier present themselves as the material manifestation of the theoretical postulates characteristic of the period.
Next, we present a selection of 8 residential works in Argentina that allow us to understand some of the local concerns associated with the modern movement:
