Banco de Londres y América del Sur
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Exterior only
Visible from the street; the inside is private.
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Located at the intersection of Reconquista and Bartolomé Mitre streets in Buenos Aires's Microcentro district, the Banco de Londres y América del Sur is an iconic Brutalist structure completed in 1966 on the site of the bank's headquarters dating to 1869. Designed by the SEPRA firm—Santiago Sánchez Elía, Federico Peralta Ramos, and Alfredo Agostini, working with young architect and visual artist Clorindo Testa—the building was conceived following a design competition held in the early 1960s to renovate facilities ahead of the institution's centenary. Its bold exposed concrete structural system stands starkly apart from the 19th-century Beaux-Arts surroundings, with an unconventional form that architecture critic Rowan Moore likened to a dinosaur's skeleton. The perforated concrete carapace filters sunlight while creating a dialogue between enclosure and openness, redefined bank architecture in Argentina, and has earned international recognition as one of the most significant works of Argentine and global architecture of its postwar period.
Architect
Movement
- Built
- Type
- bank building
- Place
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
This building on
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