Aire y Luz

The “air and light courtyard” is an element introduced by the first Building Code of Buenos Aires (1944) to ensure minimum natural ventilation and lighting for a building’s interior spaces. Although its standardization and the characteristics that define its form have evolved over time—modifying the parameters that result in different typical configurations—its dimensions have always been determined by a set of factors specific to each plot, such as its surface area, zoning, its location within the block, and the width of the street it faces. It is through the combination of these abstract values that the variation of volumes, forms, sizes, angles, and stepped profiles that shape the city—and these pages—emerges.