Mar del Plata style

A typical chalet marplatense

The Mar del Plata style (Spanish: Estilo Mar del Plata, chalet Mar del Plata or chalet marplatense) is a domestic architectural style very popular during the decades between 1935 and 1950 mainly in the Argentine resort city of Mar del Plata, but extended to other coastal towns like Miramar and Necochea.^[1]

Origins

Early example of Mar del Plata style

The style is also known in Argentina as californiano, for its associations with the ranch-style house. The features, however, are closely related to the picturesque architecture already popular among the upper class people who used to spend summertime in Mar del Plata between 1910 and 1930 and the American craftsman style.^[2][3] The precursor of the style was the Italian-born engineer Alula Baldassarini, who popularized the use of stone on the frontispieces in 1925.^[3] Some of this early examples were labeled chalet inglés ("English chalet"), a type of house which flourished between 1925 and 1935.^[4]

At the beginning of the 20th century, the upward social mobility was quite more dynamic in Mar del Plata than in Buenos Aires itself, paving the road for a strong middle class, based on tourist services, the building industry and a prosperous commerce.^[5] It was during this time that a new urban profile was born in the city, not by a process in which guidelines were designed by technocrats, but by a "democratic" one. This is the environment in which the Mar del Plata style emerged.^[6]

The chalet marplatense became the materialization of the middle-class ideals, and it is at crossroads between the upper-class summer residences and the domestic scale, regarding both its social and architectural syncretism.^[6] The houses also developed among the immigrants a sense of belonging to their new country.^[7]

Features

A two store Mar del Plata style chalet, designed by Raúl Camusso

The chalets were at first the production of builders with a great experience in the building of the eclectic style mansions for summer, but without the skills of a real technician.^[8] Nontheless, the first generation of architects from Mar del Plata, led by young professionals like Auro Tiribelli, Alberto Córsico Piccolini, José V. Coll, Gabriel Barroso or Raúl Camusso played a key role in the consolidation of the style.^[9][10] Some sources think of Tiribelli as the creator of this type of house.^[11]

The chalet marplatense is the translation of the main characteristics of the eclecticism to the domestic space: quartzite stoned facades, mission or French tiles, gable roofs, dormers, chimneys, prominent eaves and front porches.^[12]

The quartzite is also known in Argentina as Piedra Mar del Plata (Mar del Plata stone), both because its use on the houses of this style and the abundance of quartzite quarries southwest of the city.^[13]

There is the possibility of a subcategorization depending of the main style upon which the chalet is based. In fact, Alberto Córsico Piccolini used to characterize some of his works as normando simplificado ("simplified Norman") when the basic design of the houses displays some features of the Norman architecture at domestic scale.^[14]

The style raised some criticism, mostly because the overlapping of rooms and spaces on a reduced area.^[15] This characteristic, however, adds contextual value to the townscape where the chalets are homogeneously grouped, usually semi-detached.^[16]

Architect and researcher Javier Sáez describes this type of house as one of "domestic ostentation" of the "home of your dreams". He goes even further by using the phrase "domestic obscenity".^[17][18] Saéz also notice, rather than a syncretism, a conflict between the bourgeoisie pretense of the facades and the obvious taylorization of the floor plans.^[19]

Preservation

The neighbourhoods of La Perla, Stella Maris and Alfar have today the main concentrations of Mar del Plata style houses.^[20] These seaside areas attracted many middle-class tourists, particularly La Perla, thus the chalet played the dual role of home in winter and house for rent in the summer season.^[21] Mass tourism since 1950, however, put at risk the survival of the traditional picturesque architecture in Mar del Plata, including the chalet marplatense, in favour of condominiums.^[22]

There is a municipal agency which provides tax benefits for the owners to secure the maintenance or restoration of the houses and a handbook with preservation guidelines, created by the architect Lorena Marina Sánchez.^[20]

See also

• Eclecticism
• Vernacular architecture
• American Craftsman
• Ranch-style house
• Bungalow
• Cottage
• Vacation rental
• Historic Preservation

Gallery

• 

  Typical vault-shaped porch on front, dormers and chimney

• 

  Porch propped up by a stylized wooden beam and roof ending in prominent eaves

• 

  Another two-store chalet with hiped roof and dormer

• 

  Arch-shaped porch with wooden double gate

Notes

1. ^ Sáez, p. 273
2. ^ Crespo & Cova, p. 91
3. ^ ^{a b} Aliata, Fernando (2004). Diccionario de arquitectura en la Argentina: Estilos, obras, biografías, instituciones, ciudades. Diario de Arquitectura de Clarín, p. 69. ISBN 9507824227 (Spanish)
4. ^ Sáez, p. 281
5. ^ Haumont, p. 169
6. ^ ^{a b} Haumont, p. 167
7. ^ Sáez, pp. 285-286
8. ^ Sáez, p. 274
9. ^ Patrimonio en riesgo Colegio de Arquitectos de la Provincia de Buenos Aires - issue #12 (Spanish)
10. ^ Crespo & Cova, p. 110
11. ^ Tiribelli's obituary, 5 May 2006 (Spanish)
12. ^ Sáez, p. 294
13. ^ Quintas y canteras en Mar del Plata Mar del Plata.com (Spanish)
14. ^ Patrimonio Arquitectónico Marplatense (Spanish)
15. ^ Sáez, p. 301
16. ^ Una parte en el todo ciudadano: El Contextualismo La Nación, 25 April 2001 (Spanish)
17. ^ Anales del Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones (1992), Issues 29-32, p. 124 (Spanish)
18. ^ Sáez, p. 293
19. ^ Sáez, p. 295
20. ^ ^{a b} Tienen ese qué se yo (Spanish)
21. ^ Zuppa, Graciela (2001). Construcciones y representaciones en los nuevos escenarios de la naturaleza costera: Mar del Plata norte en sus orígenes. Londrina, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, p. 77. (Spanish)
22. ^ Sánchez (2008)

References

• Sáez, Javier A. (1997). La máquina promiscua. El Estilo Mar del Plata y la formación del espacio doméstico entre 1935 y 1950. Mar del Plata, Ciudad e Historia, Chapter VII. Alianza Editorial. ISBN 9504001556 (Spanish)

• Gómez Crespo, Raúl Arnaldo, Cova, Roberto Osvaldo (1982). Arquitectura marplatense:el pintoresquismo. Editorial del Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de Historia de la Arquitectura y del Urbanismo. (Spanish)

• Haumont, Nicole (1998). L'urbain dans tous ses états: faire, vivre et dire la ville. Collection Habitat et sociétés, Harmattan. ISBN 2738464343 (French)

• Sánchez, Lorena Marina (2008). Patrimonio modesto en movimiento: diálogos urbanos entre historia social e arquitectura. Vitruvius magazine. (Spanish)

• Sánchez, Lorena Marina: Chaleterapia A preservation guide (Spanish)