Los Piletones, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 3. Masterplan for Los Piletones Ciudad Autonomia De Buenos Aires Lago Regulador Riachuelo Watershed Connection to Riachuelo The story of Buenos Aires is one of arrival. The city was settled by successive waves of people seeking economic and social opportunity. Buenos Aires’ structure and appearance bears witness to the legacy of immigration. Historically divided by wealth, the north and south of Buenos Aires span the cultural reality of the 21st-century megacity. Los Piletones is a villa located on the boundary between CABA and the province of Buenos Aires. This particular villa is situated on the edge of informal and formal economies with inconsistent definitions of citizenship and land rights. This community is physically bounded by an elevated regional highway and a defunct system of flood regulating cisterns and lakes. The failure of this water system compounds a number of the challenges facing the community. Surrounding Los Piletones are a number of distinct land uses; to the south is an abandoned amusement park dominated by a space needle replica, to the east is social housing built by various previous governmental agencies, to the north exists a sports complex and university and to the west is one of the largest green spaces in the south of the city. The highway, lake, and space needle serve as orienting landmarks within the community. Within Los Piletones, the housing patterns and street layouts lack logic and rigid geometry, they currently reflect the unstructured nature of informal settlements. Villa de Los Piletones Corporacion Buenos Aires Sur is a local entity formed to spearhead the south’s economic development and social integration. This master plan is intended to assist such organizations in addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by the social, economic and environmental conditions of Los Piletones. The plan focuses primarily on the current infrastructure deficit while capitalizing on the settlement’s privileged position at the nexus between city and park. This master plan incorporates a number of design solutions and program initiatives that facilitate the integration Los Piletones into Buenos Aires proper while maintaining the unique identity of the neighborhood.