STUDIO MOARQS is an architecture studio founded and directed by architect Ignacio Montaldo (1975) in Buenos Aires City. The office works with a flexible and dynamic structure. It have developed works and projects on different subjects and scales, participating in numerous project competitions and obtaining several prizes, among which It stands out the first place in the contest for the remodeling of the Plaza de Mayo in 2006, the first prize in national contest for Ecumenical Landmarks and the Colomichico Archaeological Park Visitor Center in the northwest of the province of Neuquén in 2011. The office has participated in the Argentine exhibition at the Biennial of Architecture of San Pablo in the In 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011 and in the Argentina exhibition at the Venice Biennial of the years, 2008 and 2012. In 2007 moarqs won the first prize in the Urban interventions category of the Biennial prize for works built by the College of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires and 2008 first mention of honor in the Latin American Biennial of Quito in the landscape architecture category. Ignacio Montaldo is Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Architecture Design and Urbanism at the University of Buenos Aires, and Invited Professor at the architecture school Torcuato Di Tella University. He has taught at the University of General San Martin and University of Palermo. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Gran Colombia in 2017.  He has been a Doctorate in the University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Architecture Design and Urbanism with a thesis project titled: “Towers in Buenos Aires, Form, Tectonicity and Structure”. Between 2018 and 2021 He was LABDA Director, The Architecture Documents Laboratory, (www.labda.com.ar) a documentation center established at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism of the Universidad Nacional de San Martín. From 2022 he is Director of Architecture Docs Collection: (www.docsarq.com).

PURPOSES

UTILITAS FIRMITAS VENUSTAS LOCUS

We enclose an architecture that get simple answers to complex questions that arise from an exhaustive reading of both the tangible and intangible constraints of the project (technique, culture, use, aesthetics, ethics, site, climate, economy, market, etc.). We never give anything of course, finding the essential issues that structure the project, getting more with less. Standing from a conception of time and place that transcends all regionalism, to think here and now forming part of the architectural universal culture.

LIFE AS END

We believe in the possibility of architecture to contribute to society and improve the quality of life of people, and it is from that place that we are interested in developing professional practice. Think architecture, as Pérez Oyarzum says, as a mantle and as a mirror (1). As a mirror, to reflect the current state of architectural culture; And as a cloak, to disappear and give shelter to life.

CONSTRUCTION AS ORIGIN

“The only real command of constructive art is: Built naturally, relaxed. Do not do anything without a sense. Everything superfluous eventually becomes ugly. “(2)
The formal structure of architecture lies in the constructive logic, and it is from this that the theory of architecture is constructed. We are interested in promoting an architecture without appearances, which arises from the disposition of concrete materials in a certain order, conjugated with “art”, achieving an intense poetics through a resource economy. Getting more with less.

(1) For further information on this concept, please refer to Fernando Pérez Oyarzum in “Architecture Material” ED. ARQ. Santiago, Chile. 2003.
(2) Alvar Aalto, 1925

AWARDS

2017 Honorable Mention
Competition for the office building for the Security Minister. Organizad by Buenos Aires university.  November.

2011 Second Honorable Mention
National Competition for the Project Idea for the University of Rawson. Organized by the Northeast Architects Association Chubut, supported by FADEA. October.

2011 Publics Prize CPAU.
Photography Competition organized by the Architecture and Urbanism Professionals Association for the City of Buenos Aires. September

2011 Winner
National Ideas Competition for the Design of the Iconic Urban Emblem for Technopolis Interactive Park of Arts, Science and Technology. Province of Buenos Aires. Villa Martelli. September.

2011 Winner
National Ideas Competition for the Design Ecumenical in Northern Neuquén Landmark and Visitor Centre in Colomichico Archeological Park in Las Ovejas, Province of Neuquén. Mayo.

2010 Selected. Prize Estímulo Bonifacio del Carril. Architecture. National Academy of Fine Arts

2009 Silver Medal
Prize CTIBOR-CAYC Architecture and Brick XII International Architecture Biennale BA09.
Work: Offices Structure CCDH. October

2008 First Honorable Mention.
XVI Pan-American Architecture Biennale in Quito. Architecture and Landscaping. Work: Plaza Sarmiento, San Fernando, Buenos Aires Province. November.

2008 Honorable Mention.
National Pre-Project Competition IFIBYNE. Physiological, Biomolecular and Neuroscientific Institute

2007 Winner
Prize, Urbanism, Research and Theory of the Architecture Association of the City of Buenos Aires (CAPBA). Constructed Works. Category: Urban Intervention. November 2007. Work Plaza Sarmiento, San Fernando . Buenos Aires Province.

2006 Winner
National Pre-Project Competition for the Redesign of Plaza De Mayo and Ideas for its immediate surroundings. November 2006.

2005 Honorable Mention
Steel Framing Competition. Mar Azul House.

2004 Second Place
National Pre-Project Competition for the Amplification of the Economics Faculty at UBA. August.

TEAM WORK

Ignacio Montaldo
Nicolás Podesta
Christian Dragan
Laura Palma
Eiko Vetter

FORMER COLLABORATORS

Nada Riadi (France), Guadalupe Liotta (Argentina), Veronique Salib (France), Alejandra Velletaz(Argentina), Felipe Seixas(Porto), Malena Masó(Argentina), Catalina Ugarte(Argentina), Tomás Allende (Argentina), Blas Rowe (Argentina), Carlos Liba (Argentina), Auguste Bernard (France), Lola Verdier (France), Virgile de Saint Jorre (France), Mickaël Osorovitz (France), Frechon Jammes (France), Cande Mursi (Barcelona), Ángel Tundis (Argentina), Yoel Soler (Argentina), Lucie Genevee (France), Davallet Rémi (France), Federico Knichnik (Argentina), Aicha Fourati (France), Ahlam Kalam (France), Abla Bedraoui Drissi (France), Marie Donoso (Ecuador), Jan W. Wähning (Germany), Niklas Pflieger (Germany), Edouard Danary (Switzerland), Simón Jobin (Switzerland), Dulce Grosso (Argentina), Oscar García, (Argentina), Torunn Vaksvik Skarstad (Norway), Isabel Schmidt (Switzerland), Jerónimo Bailat (Argentina), Sofía Tomaselli (Argentina), Ayumi Oshiro (Argentina), Jeanine Boche (Germany), Jean Ceccaldi (Corsica), Lucrecia Brero (Argentina), Nicolas Aguilar (Ecuador), Pedro Cohelo Behr (Ecuador-France), Darius Chambrin (France), Juan Charadia (Argentina), Adrien Girard (France), Ma Eugenia Grijalva (Venezuela), Andreina Medina (Venezuela), Jhosangela Ramírez (Venezuela), Milagro Torres Dávila (Venezuela), Lilian Schmid (Switzerland), Federico Bianchi (Switzerland), Claudia Ferrero Miralles (Spain), Lucas Morales (Argentina), Laura Bloch (France), Viviana Colmenares (Venezuela), Rachele Pacifici (USA), Martin Janssens (Belgum), Aliénor Depondt (France), Cyril Beaugé (France), Dara Challoner (Ireland), Sara Brandao (Portugal), Américo Morales (Chile), Dovile Norkute (Lithuania), Antonia Frey (Germany), Nina Darrasse (France), Noemie Cageron (France), Aurelia Petit Jean (France), Melina Martinez Andretto (Argentina), Anne L. Pouchard Serra (France), Paola Lucci (Italy), Vinicius Barajas Nunes (Brazil), Soledad Melillo, François Marcuz (France), Silvia Neidtner (Germany), Verónica Ragazzoni (Argentina), Olga Nousse (France), Ornella Mendieta (Argentina), Lucia Donizetti (Argentina), Sofía Ordoñez (Argentina), Federico Bullrich (Argentina), Violeta Magariños (Argentina), Nicolás Schneerson (Argentina), Federico Vidal (Argentina), Judith Taegger (Germany), Eugenia Bernardez (Argentina), María Sol Imaz (Argentina), Gabriela Gotusso (Argentina), Lukas Gerber (Switzerland), Juan Manuel Munari (Argentina), Pablo Falsoi (Argentina), Damián Bendetti (Argentina), Silvina Lascano (Argentina), Cecilia Moscoso (Argentina), Magdalena Seal (Argentina), Gabriela Marcos (Argentina), Bernardita Allen (Argentina), Eugenia Carro (Argentina).