An Argentine development in New York is awarded

Marcello Rodriguez Pons is the Argentine architect awarded in New York: he received the World Architecture Community Award in the category “Designed Award Winning Architecture Projects” for the Parque Caballito project that he designed in that neighborhood. The award that has been given since 2006 recognizes undertakings with the potential to inspire questions and inquiries about contemporary architecture. “We really weren’t expecting it,” says Raúl Seivane from FS, the developer of the venture.

Use of solar energy for lighting common areas and for preheating water, collecting rainwater for irrigation and even using materials specifically designed to guarantee thermal and sound insulation. These features, worthy of a new corporate or LEED office building, are in a residential project located near Parque Chacabuco and the most sought-after corridor in the area, Pedro Goyena. It is a project of 2500 square meters covered on a lot of 500 that will have 35 apartments of between 35 and 40 m2, parking for cars, motorcycles and bicycles, as well as SUM, laundry and green terraces. More than the value per square meter, Seivane prefers to talk about the final price of the units that range between US $ 65,000 and US $ 90,000. “This project is inspired by nautical architecture, in which every square inch is finely thought out,” he describes.

Seivane clarifies that, the fact that a project is thought and designed from sustainability does not mean that it will be “more expensive. Designing with sustainability is like making a good architectural design. What matters is putting a lot of head into it, investigating, “he explains.

The developer highlights that the new code of the City of Buenos Aires has, from its conception, many guidelines related to the environment and sustainability, such as having 25% green spaces or managing water management responsibly. “We really do not have a higher cost, there may be a slight percentage of difference, but it is not much,” he explains and assures that “it is compensated by the advantages of higher value of the final product” such as the insulation in walls, on the ceilings, or the possibility of having solar panels and that compensates for the final cost of electricity.

To this, the developer adds a feature that, from the Covid-19, is valued much more: green spaces. “We thought about this project before and now we see how important the added values ​​are, of space,” says the developer who, together with his partner, Walter Félix, started this project in 2018, with high uncertainty ahead, but we saw that construction costs were going to go down. “Therefore, the saying is never true again, in every crisis there is an opportunity. It is an interesting time to analyze projects ”, he concludes.

–