Home Tour: Alejandro Sticotti’s Buenos Aires Oasis
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Alejandro Sticotti is a devoted modernist who is addicted to the “natural materials, clean spaces, less is more” approach in both his furniture and building designs. After living an accomplished life with his wife, Hernaez, the couple bought a 5,400-square-foot garden outside one of the houses they were considering. After landing the sale, they set out to fulfill a lifelong dream--designing their own dream home from scratch! Slowly, after much thought, the concept of their house came together; they were building a home floating in a garden, which was not an easy task.
“I try to use simple, honest materials. I don’t like paint or plaster; I prefer to leave things as they come, and show how things are made.”
The construction uses primarly recycled materials from the local region. This helps support the local economy and keeps sourcing costs low. Inside the home there are floors of recycled pine, walls paneled in full sheets of recycled plywood, and slats salvaged from an old house in La Boca. Sticotti provided a majority of the home's decorative flourishes including a scattering of design icons—wire Bertoia chairs and a pair of cowhide-covered butterfly chairs, invented in 1939 by three Buenos Aires designers—which are a plethora of classic products.
“Reflecting that economic and architectural climate, as well as Sticotti’s own aesthetic leanings, the finished house is very much “of Argentina,” as he says. “People always say that Buenos Aires is like a European city [because of the baroque architecture and Italian heritage], but at the same time, we have our own culture, our own materials. This house is all B.A. In a way, I was trying to find something that represents us—and what we’ve got here is leather and wood and concrete.”
This building style has set a new design direction for South America as they inspire themselves as well as the rest of the world with their efficiency, use of recycled materials, and space saving innovation, all representing the newest modern design language.
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Cheers,
Frank Campanale