Buenos Aires: when Power transcends Architecture

By Toms Prez Amenta

Buenos Aires is a city of design and architecture; the capital of tango; the
gateway to Argentina and the main meeting point of the region.
However, its city-branding has been historically bastardized. There is no
permanent street furniture and regularized urban landscape. As a result of the
lack of long-term planning, Buenos Aires is subject to the political scenario and
its excessive power.
But why has it become so difficult to generate a symbiotic relationship between
Power and Architecture? The relationship between Architecture and Power can
be positive, but also sinister. In Buenos Aires, the Power is prefixed to the
Architecture. Today, the Government has established urban liberalism; it has no
real idea of designing a city, but a business policy.
While governments transform the perception of Buenos Aires from one day to
another, citizens suffer the folly and inconsistence of political discourse. Thus,
there is a perpetuation of the problem where the aim is to give a new visual
identity system, making tabula rasa of the existent. Perhaps the problem is that
the porteos (people from Buenos Aires) are too smart. When we think
something, we believe it is already made and resolved.