Forbici Academy / Hargar Studio

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Text description provided by the architects.The Forbici Academy is a renovation project of an existing building that lacks a façade in the center of the city ofLa Plata. A foundational "chorizo" house that over time has filled its remaining patios, occupying 100% of the lot and depriving most of its rooms of air and light.Programmatically, the project organizes mixed hairdressing salons on the ground floor and a hairdressing academy on the upper floor.The strategies involved creating a lung of air and light in the center of the lot, an internal patio that also articulates the circulation between floors. On the other hand, a new façade towards the city was constructed, a neutral and translucent envelope of glass bricks that matches the height of the neighboring buildings to create a new space in an old, unused terrace. Finally, inside, the spaces are stripped down to create generous and flexible rooms, enhanced perceptually by optical effects of mirrored planes and movable objects.Understanding the potential of the built heritage, minimal interventions are made, and existing structures such as load-bearing exposed brick walls and brick vaults on IPN profiles are valued and recovered.