People always talk about the architecture of neighborhoods like Recoleta and its French style or Balvanera and its Art Nouveau buildings. But what is little talked about is that there is a Soviet neighborhood in Buenos Aires, a neighborhood of Soviet architecture from the communist era that seems to have come out of the cold war and is, in fact, one of the most important neighborhoods in the southern area.
What is the soviet neighborhood of Buenos Aires?
To the south of Buenos Aires stands the housing complex Lugano I and II, in the neighborhood of Villa Lugano. Because of its design and its architecture of blocks, every corner evokes the architecture of the Soviet era. Surely you know them or you passed by: it is a set of monoblocks officially called Barrio General de División Manuel Nicolás Savio and its construction was one of the most ambitious urban projects of the twentieth century in Buenos Aires.
The history of this Soviet neighborhood in Buenos Aires dates back to its planning, at the end of the 1960s, within the framework of the Almirante Brown Park Pilot Plan, where the idea of transforming the land near the Bañado de Flores into a usable urban space arose. A multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, sociologists and economists worked on the creation and conception of this set of monoblocks and the entire neighborhood of Villa Lugano. Together they gave shape to this project that still survives today and that, just by passing by, takes us back to Soviet architecture in Latin America.
Lugano I and II: a neighborhood of communist architecture in Buenos Aires
As one would expect from a Soviet neighborhood with communist airs, Lugano I and II is distinguished by its functionalist design, where efficiency and community life are prioritized. The complex houses approximately 130 buildings of between 4 and 10 stories that are organized in numbered sectors and connected by walkways and bridges.
The first stage of the project dates back to 1970 and included 68 buildings with a total of 3,808 apartments. The second stage added 47 buildings and 2,632 more apartments. In the 1980s, 11 towers of 22 floors each were added, thus completing the urban landscape that we see today and that attracts the attention of anyone who does not know this part of Buenos Aires. Or even those who have traveled to other countries and are surprised to discover a building with Soviet characteristics in our city.