Destination Home: A Cooperative Retrofitting Model for Buenos Aires’ Immigrant Community

The fragmented urban landscape of Buenos Aires reflects its migration history. This condition, accentuated by current international and urban migration patterns, has led to a contradictory occupation of the city centre: densely overcrowded conventillos are juxtaposed with vacant neoclassical office buildings. In response to the crucial “problema de la vivienda,” or housing question, a specific legal framework is being employed to convert Microcentro into a mixed-use neighbourhood through the formal and informal introduction of residential units. However, the speculative demand for luxury housing or Airbnb is leading this transformation process, ignoring the pressing needs of those requiring affordable housing. By recognising and analysing the immigrants’ necessities and priorities, the built environment and the typical collective housing types (conventillos), Destination Home proposes a tailored strategy to rehabilitate state-owned historical buildings in Microcentro into cooperative housing alternatives for urban and international immigrants. Centrality, affordability, and the notion of community are key themes of this transformation. The project aims to provide a dignified place to call home based on immigrants’ desires and needs, by promoting cooperation between the government, non-profit organizations, and users as a viable policy approach to address the “problema de la vivienda,” urban vacancy and to practically answer to immigrants’ constitutional rights.