Transition Between Scales
Driza Temple explores a recurring condition within contemporary medium-density housing: the worry of shaping and building the city itself while preserving the domestic scale of everyday living.
The project operates simultaneously across two dimensions. Toward the urban realm, the building envelope redefines the architectural scale through an aluminum screening system that unifies the reading of the volume and establishes a contemporary presence within the urban fabric. The façade goes beyond its role as a mere boundary in order to become a transitional layer between the building and the city.
A second approximation, closer to everyday experience, reintroduces a domestic scale associated with the traditional houses of Mar del Plata. The stacked terraces are not conceived as residual balconies or ornamental extensions; rather, their proportions enable genuine inhabitation, incorporating grill areas and spaces for stay that function as elevated courtyards. This strategy transfers qualities traditionally associated with the single-family house — appropriation, outdoor living, and material intimacy — into a collective housing typology.
The Plaza
The ground floor is conceived as an extension of the public realm. A generous open void organizes the access while establishing a plaza-like condition capable of extending collective activities toward the city.
The communal gathering space directly engages this open condition and operates independently from the residential floors above. The purpose of this is to enable multiple forms of appropriation while strengthening the relationship between architecture and collective life.
All parking is resolved below grade, freeing the ground plane to prioritize pedestrian experience, visual openness, and spatial continuity.
Materiality
Materiality operates as both an atmospheric device and as a means of identity.
Exposed concrete, exposed brick, and natural wood compose a material palette that seeks equilibrium between contemporary precision and local tradition. Brick establishes a dialogue with Mar del Plata’s architectural memory; concrete contributes permanence and tectonic character; wood introduces a tactile dimension that reinforces warmth and interior experience.
Vegetation is integrated integrally throughout the project, incorporating nature as an essential component of inhabitation rather than a supplementary element.
Residential Units
Each floor accommodates two residential units organized around their own vertical voids. Rather than relying on a conventional corridor logic, the apartments establish spatial relationships oriented toward their own elevated courtyards.