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Opposite page, left: urban
residual space in Buenos Aires.
Centre: Avenida Corrientes, in
the background the monument-
obelisk of Plaza de la República.
Right-hand column: the Banco
de Londres designed by
Clorindo Testa (1923-2013) with
SEPRA (Sánchez Elía, Peralta
Ramos, Agostini).
This page: the Biblioteca
Nacional Mariano Moreno by
Testa, Bullrich and Cazzaniga in
the Recoleta districtRecoleta Cultural Centre, we see a
superimposition of caverns, ruins,
and buildings (medieval, Renais-
sance, baroque, and modern) that
symbolises time.
Machines for seeing. By inverting
Le Corbusier’s promenade architec-
turale or by constructing oculi to
guide the eye, Testa’s architecture
becomes an instrument that alters
our distracted gaze. Of particular
note are the staircase-buildings of
Recoleta Cultural Centre; the stair-
case-belvedere of the Bank of London
and South America; the modelled
ramps of San Vicente de Paul Hospi-
tal, the Graduate Centre of Econom-
ic Sciences and the National Lottery
building; and the intricate routes
found in the La Pampa extension and
the Samarcanda Cultural Centre.
Testa invented numerous varia-
tions on the oculi. The Battle Monu-
ment is an enormous installation
through which to observe the city
and river. At the Bank of London,
cropped by silhouettes and organic
apertures, the neighbouring build-
ings appear more classical and ven-
erable. The Naval Hospital multiplies
portholes to infinity. The National
Library is a lookout over the river
and the parks, triangulated by the
oculi of the nearby Recoleta Centre.
Technique as an objet trouvé. Testa
explores the plastic limits of mate-
rials, either as parts of the work, or
as objects with inexplicable auton-
omy. At the Bank of London and the
National Library, the formwork of
reinforced concrete is handcrafted
in the shape of curves, crenellation,
perforations and other geometric
patterns. On the beach of Ostend,
Belgium, the Castiñeira house (Casa
La Tumbona, 1986-89) is a plastered
masonry composition of stepped
parapets and staggered volumes.
Corrugated sheets of fibre-reinforced
cement, commonly used to make in-
expensive roofs, create a small inte-
rior at the Institute for Iberoamer-
ican Cooperation (1987-88). In a flat
version, fibre cement forms part of
the remarkable ceiling at the Aer-
olíneas Argentinas building. At the
other end of the spectrum, brightly
coloured mosaic tiles, the type used
in bathrooms and kitchens of 1950s
apartments, cover large exterior
surfaces at the Naval Hospital.Jorge Francisco Liernur, architect
and scholr, lives in Buenos Aires.