The Porous Citadel

The challenge was to create a prototype for a gated community in the suburban pampas of Buenos Aires.  The stereotypical gated community exaggerates inwardness with the creation of a singular large open space in the center that sets up distinct hierarchies between center and periphery, and creates exclusion within the gatedness. By working with and through the hierarchies embedded in the local groupings of plots and by reversing the existing trends from the radial organization around a center to the branchial organizations which dissipate central tendencies, ‘the porous citadel’ breaks the exclusivity of the center.  Open space is now fragmented using a system that enables the plots to grow toward local centers.