Houses

One of the things I like best about Buenos Aires is how some of the older houses are designed. If you are in the heart of nicer parts of the center of town, in Recoleta or Palermo, most of the dwellings are very nice high rise apartment houses 10-15 stories high. However, in the neighborhoods just a little ways out of downtown, the apartment buildings give way to more single or two story homes. Some have beautiful stone and iron work, comparable to brownstones in New York or the woodwork on victorians in San Francisco. But others reveal nothing more than a concrete wall along a sidewalk with a single panel metal door. There's no front yard. To look at them from the street, you wouldn't even know that anyone lived there. Inside, the center of the home is an open air patio and the rooms and kitchen have doors or windows which open up to the patio. The patio serves a number of purposes. It provides daylight without the need for external windows. It circulates fresh air and provides ventilation. It provides an outdoor space (I've never seen a backyard in Buenos Aires). And you get to listen to the rain fall on the patio tile at night while you sleep. This is a picture of the patio at Rosana's house. What I like about this concept is that it's almost the opposite of what WE do. With houses being so expensive back home, and their price being measured in living space per square foot, the concept of having 'unused' space in the very center of a home is quirky or illogical because it takes away from the number and size of rooms and, hence, the resale value. But it seems to me that this is the way we should live. Is it the size of the room that's more important or the quality of light, air and flow? Which brings me to a related observation, which is that most things are noticeably smaller here ... houses, rooms, shops, streets ... the very space you have to move around in wherever you happen to be (though the widest boulevards I've ever seen are also here; you almost can't get across them in a single green light). People appear as though they are used to, and perhaps even prefer, close proximity and a lot of togetherness. As if, if they had the space and solitude that we enjoy, it might somehow feel wrong, like clothes a few sizes too big or lonely. It's not uncommon for a family of 5 or 6 people to live in a tiny two bedroom, one bathroom home. The second picture above is a little window that looks out from the shower. There are birds in the trees right outside, which sing most of the morning and afternoon. This morning while I was showering I saw two of them doing something that wasn't intended for me to see, not more than several feet away from the window. He was pretty quick about it.