Community Civic Center

Rosario, Argentina

Community Centers

Architects: Mario Corea Arquitectura

Location: Rosario, Argentina
Year: 1999
Team: Coauthors: Mario Corea, Diego Nakamatsu, Collaborators: Jorgelina Arnaldo, Paula Campra, Evangelina Dania, Mauro Gribarello
Structure: Luis Zamboni
Installations: Raúl Utges

This project forms part of the municipal redevelopment plan to construct civic and community centers in Rosario’s six districts. Located on the western periphery in an area known as Villa Banana, the context for this center is a dense tough neighborhood characterized by self-made housing, unpaved streets and abandoned buildings. The design concept was to establish a landmark within this context that would readily identify the building as a public place for collective use by the residents. The center is organized in two parallel volumes
-one containing the administration and the other housing a multiuse space and an auditorium- connected by a large plaza that serves as a meeting place for the neighbors and community groups. Overall, formal simplicity and low-cost materials, predominately concrete, define the architectural language. Large portions of the facades on the ground floor are glazed and this transparency transmits the newly established relationship between the municipality of Rosario and this formerly marginalized community.