by Katharine Logan
From the New York brownstone to the Shanghai shop house, the rowhouse enjoys widespread success as an urban housing type. A mid-rise infill development in Buenos Aires, designed by Argentinean firm Canda Gazaneo Unga, illustrates the rich potential of this type, translating it into an elegant modern idiom and configuring it to achieve contemporary urban densities.
Canda Gazaneo Ungar is a young office of three architects under 40 years of age. This design won for them first prize in the 2005 Alcan and Todo Obras Review Contest for Young Architects. "It's a great thing we were able to do this here," says principal Daniel Canda, "We had an economic crisis in Argentina three years ago, and it is sometimes difficult to develop our work — but where there's the motivation to do things, they can be done."
The strengths of the design lie in the clarity of its tectonic expression, the simplicity and intelligence of its configuration, and the provision of small-house living at condominium densities.
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