This studio option acknowledges our contemporary condition as one that is filled with inherent [binary] oppositions and contradictions which inform our everyday experiences. The studio option accepts the premise that place is defined physically by varying degrees of enclosure and metaphysically by those aspects deemed intangible in relation to the human beings [bodies] who occupy the space.

Given this premise the studio option seeks to push the boundaries of understanding, or the potential relationships between, the physical and metaphysical qualities of a place. The studio investigation will be located in a spatially and socio-economically marginalised condition - in a residual, abandoned space that has lost its original meaning over time. By observing the stie through the fictional lens of the magical realism of Giotto and Argentine Xul Solar, can we transform its meaning? Our investigation will question if it is possible to shift perceptions of this neglected locale to a place through implementing non-conventional modes of cultural expression in architectural form and language.

Conventional design approaches which produce obvious solutions are not accepted in this studio option as valid vehicles of questioning the potentiality hidden within the given site. The fundamental challenge of the intellectual explorations of the studio option, therefore, is to seek more obscure ways in which readings of past, present and (a hypothetical) future can be read simultaneously. We ask: Can memory exist without falling prey to clichés? Can avant-garde strategies be implemented without negating the past in our current situation? Can memory and avant-gardism coexist? Fundamentally we are questioning: what does it mean to be marginal, to be marginalised?

To meet such a challenge whilst avoiding preconceived tendencies of place making, the student must demonstrate a willingness to step outside his/her comfort zone. The studio option assists the student to step into the realm of the unfamiliar by employing the strategy of displacement as the means of enquiry. The site is purposely chosen outside familiar Anglo Saxon contexts, in Latin America – more precisely in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA). Theoretically, historically, politically, and socio-economically based readings from a broad spectrum of intellectual positions within Latin societies are orchestrated so that the students may gain insight into the problems to be addressed. Since one of the main positions of the studio option focuses on the interaction between tectonics and the human senses, particular emphasis is placed on readings that address the body from cultural and/or natural [biological] perspectives. It is of utmost importance to understand how bodies interact within architectural and urban spaces and how the body informs the making of such spaces in a Latin American subtropical/temperate environment.