On a typical day, Nicolás Tovo and Teresa Sarmiento’s house is a hive of activity. Upon my arrival at the architects’ new family home in Buenos Aires, Nico ushers me inside, where the couple’s three children, three cats, and Jack Russell terrier are buzzing around the open plan. Over coffee and flaky medialunas, Teresa enthusiastically fills me in on the story behind their home while Nico doodles intricate floor plans to help explain.

In need of more space for their burgeoning brood, the couple, founders of architecture and design firm La Base Studio, purchased a 1970s home in the well-heeled district of Belgrano. They demolished all but its concrete structure, which they used as a framework for expansion. The original home sat on a roughly 4,000-square-foot lot at the intersection of a quiet street and a bustling thoroughfare. The location presented a welcome challenge for Nico and Tere.

“We had been wanting to experiment with contrasting ideas of exposure and protection for a long time,” explains Tere. “That was the guiding principle of this whole project—being able to create a home that is both exposed to the elements and a garden yet hidden from view.”

They started with transparency, using floor-to-ceiling glass panels for the exterior walls and fixing them to the home’s two-story frame. This was good for well-lit interiors and a connection to their yard, but bad for privacy from the street, so they added a tall fence made of angelim wood around the perimeter of the property to keep passersby from peeking inside the ground-floor living spaces. New plantings around the home obscure sight lines from taller neighboring developments. Lapacho wood slat screens and a tile-covered wall create more privacy for the second floor.

“We always do architecture and landscape together. It’s not two separate things for us—we think about both at the same time.”
—Teresa Sarmiento, architect and resident

The ground floor of the 2,700-square-foot house is mostly open, with glass walls on all sides. The living spaces are here, as is the kitchen, which is set in a nook bounded by walls that don’t quite touch the ceiling. Along one wall, a stairwell heads down to a new basement level with a study and up to the second level, which includes the bedrooms as well as a landing area that doubles as a TV room and play space. Wall-height built-ins made of Brazilian pine help the latter feel cozy.

Back at street level at the rear of the home, the garden, designed by Par Estudio—a landscape firm Tere started with architect Violeta Ossani—is transportive. Native flora surrounds the remodeled pool, attracting butterflies and hummingbirds that add to the buzz of family activity. In the background are the constant thrum of traffic and the clatter of an occasional commuter train, reminders of the busy city just over the fence.

Project Credits:

Architecture: La Base Studio

Structural Engineering: Juan Eduardo Marco

Landscape Design: Par Estudio

Lighting Design: Huup

—

Head back to the September/October 2022 issue homepage

Also Appears In

In Buenos Aires, a Family’s Experimental Renovation Tests the Boundaries of a Busy Street Corner