Belgrado House by Ignacio Szulman Arquitecto

A Contemporary Ruin Reimagined in Buenos Aires

Located in the Parque Chas neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Belgrado House by Ignacio Szulman Arquitecto is a residential renovation that explores time, memory, and materiality through architectural contradiction. Completed in 2023, the 1937 ft² house transforms an existing structure into a poetic dialogue between past and present, drawing inspiration from the imaginary ruins of 18th-century Italian printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Inventing a Ruin, Renewing the Existing

Piranesi’s fascination with Roman ruins, often reconstructed or entirely invented, serves as a conceptual foundation for the project. Rather than preserving the existing house as a relic, the architects pursued an inverse strategy: the new is deliberately aged, while the old is carefully renewed.

A newly added upper volume is conceived as an artificial ruin, constructed from broken bricks and irregular masonry. This fragment-like addition is grafted onto the pre-existing house, while the original structure is repaired, restored, and painted white, giving it a renewed identity. The result is a layered architectural narrative where ambiguity replaces clarity, and the boundary between old and new becomes intentionally blurred.

Ground Floor: Interior, Exterior Continuity

On the ground floor, the rear portion of the original house was demolished to create a garden, enhancing natural light and ventilation. The front and side walls of the existing structure were preserved, maintaining the urban footprint and historical presence of the house.

The living and kitchen areas open fully toward the garden through large folding carpentry systems, creating flexible spaces that oscillate between interior and exterior. These transitional zones reinforce the house’s relationship with the outdoors, while supporting contemporary living patterns rooted in openness and adaptability.

Upper Volume: Archaeology in Brick

The upper floor accommodates the private sleeping areas and staircase, completing the spatial organization of the house. Externally, this volume is wrapped in a textured skin of broken and whole bricks, with intact units strategically placed at openings and edges to ensure structural precision.

Internally, the same logic continues through a subtle composition of rustic common bricks and exposed brickwork. These variations form layered surfaces that resemble archaeological strata, reinforcing the illusion of a constructed ruin. The brickwork becomes both structure and narrative: an expressive material language that speaks of erosion, repair, and permanence.

Material Expression and Atmosphere

Materials play a central role in shaping the project’s identity. Products from Matyser, Mosaicos Rossi, and Terra Calcáreos complement the tactile quality of the brickwork, contributing to a restrained yet expressive palette. Light filtering through deep openings and textured walls further enhances the sense of depth and temporal layering.

A House Between Eras

Rather than celebrating contrast through sharp differentiation, Belgrado House embraces tension, ambiguity, and coexistence. By making the new appear old and the old appear new, the project challenges conventional ideas of renovation and heritage. It proposes architecture not as a static object, but as a continuum of transformations, where history is neither erased nor frozen, only reinterpreted.

Project Facts

• Architects: Ignacio Szulman Arquitecto
• Location: Parque Chas, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Area: 1937 ft²
• Year: 2023
• Photographs: Javier Agustín Rojas
• Manufacturers: Matyser, Mosaicos Rossi, Terra Calcáreos

All photographs are works ofJavier Agustín Rojas