10 Works of Architecture to Pay Tribute to Rafael Viñoly

Addressing diverse scales, users, and themes, Rafael Viñoly has been involved in numerous architectural projects ranging from museums and educational facilities to airports and skyscrapers. Beyond the economic, geographic, technological, social, or cultural variables he has faced, the wide range of works he has left us as a legacy is the fruit of a trajectory that we propose to go through from his beginnings in the profession to his most controversial and most recent projects.

After graduating as an architect from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Buenos Aires, Viñoly was part of the architectural firm now called MSGSSV, participating in prominent Argentinian projects of the 1970s. He then decided to emigrate to the United States around 1978, where he founded his firm Rafael Viñoly Architects in 1983, his first major project being the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, followed by the Tokyo International Forum, considered one of the most important cultural centers in Japan.

[...] "architecture is not simply an artistic endeavor, or a mere technical or organizational challenge, it is a social practice with a significant impact on the collective environment far beyond the effects of its initial visualization. It is this responsibility towards the environment that defines the profession's scope of competence." - Rafael Viñoly

Although some of his works have not been exempt from controversy, such as the 432 Park Avenue residential skyscraper of 426 meters high or the 20 Fenchurch Street tower in London or the San Rafael Hotel project in Uruguay, Viñoly has been recognized worldwide for numerous works such as the Carrasco International Airport or even, in recent times, for the donation of his design of the Zero + Infinity pavilion for the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), among others.

With offices in London, Manchester, Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires, Chicago, and Palo Alto, his studio has, to date, developed projects in practically every continent involving countries such as the United States, England, Japan, Uruguay, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, etc. After his sudden and recent death in New York, we seek to pay tribute to the extensive career of Rafael Viñoly through ten of his most recognized works around the world, where he has shown his imprint, his ideals, and his varied range of projection.

Technology and landscape dialogue in the proposal by Flora Manteola, Javier Sánchez Gómez, Josefina Santos, Justo Jorge Solsona, Rafael Viñoly, Carlos Sallaberry, and Felipe Tarsitano for the ATC Argentina Televisora Color building located in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Over a built area of 35,000 square meters, a quality public space is generated through a sloping terrace of public character that resolves the continuity of the park taking the scale of the surrounding neighborhood. Four equal volumes jut out containing the studios and are surrounded by a perimeter skylight that brings natural light into the heart of the floor plan. From the outside, the building is thought of as geography.

Towards the end of the 1970s, the MSGSSV architectural office carried out the Terrazas de Manantiales project, consisting of 92 summer residences on a beachfront site in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Respecting the natural slope of the land, the volumetry acts as a compact mass staggered towards the beach and offers great visuals and orientations together with a system of interlocking terraces and expansions. The dwellings are grouped and related through a system of vaulted streets that descend toward the shore.

Better known as "El Rulero", the Prourban Building by Flora Manteola, Javier Sánchez Gómez, Josefina Santos, Justo Solsona, and Rafael Viñoly (MSGSSV) is located on the northern end of Avenida 9 de Julio, on the corner of Del Libertador Avenue and Carlos Pellegrini Avenue. It is an office building with a free perimeter, whose cylindrical and solid morphology stands out in its context. Its openwork tube structure is unified with its enclosure in a single material, which is reinforced concrete. A grid is drawn in the concrete, leaving the facade made up of windows with gray mirrored glass that is repeated uniformly to infinity.

A venue for international events and cultural exchanges, the Tokyo International Forum hosts dance, music, and theater performances along with conventions, trade fairs, business meetings, and receptions. Accessible to the public, the city's arts center seeks to shield itself from the impact of its surroundings and is composed of a granite perimeter wall enclosing a landscaped urban plaza, deployed below four suspended spaces dedicated to the performing arts. This plaza visually enters the Crystal Hall, which has a 228-meter-long structure. Adding to the flexibility of the space, all conference rooms are connected to the theaters via bridges and pedestrian ramps.

Wageningen University and Research Center decided to build its new unified campus in the north of the city of Wageningen in the Netherlands. Rafael Viñoly's proposal sought to respond to the University's commitment to environmental research by creating a prefabricated load-bearing structure on the exterior in combination with ramps and structural bridges that span a large central atrium for greater interaction and a column-free interior.

Serving the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, Carrasco International Airport symbolizes a gateway for a large number of visitors arriving in the country. Viñoly's proposed design expands and modernizes the old facilities through a new passenger terminal that increases capacity and boosts commercial and tourism growth in the region. Focusing on public areas, the design features open spaces, natural light, restaurants, stores, and green spaces under a slightly curved 365-meter-long roof. Starting from the ground, the white curve of the roof is inspired by the undulating landscapes of Uruguay's coastline and encourages a link to the surrounding topography.

Located in the heart of the City of London, the 20 Fenchurch Street tower stands on a small plot of land and, as it grows in height, it enlarges the platforms of its floors to gain more surface area at its highest levels. This 160-meter high skyscraper consists of office spaces, a double-height lobby on the first floor, and a public vertical garden with panoramic views of the entire city, gardens, an outdoor terrace, and two restaurants. During its design, we sought to maintain the descending profile of the Eastern Cluster complex and also to invert the traditional volume distribution of a building, giving way to landscaped plazas and pedestrian walkways on the first floor in the immediate vicinity.

On the border between the departments of Maldonado and Rocha, stands the Garzón Lagoon Bridge, whose design and structure seeks to reduce the speed of vehicles while encouraging the contemplation of the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape. This 202-meter circular roadway sits over the Garzón Lagoon, which is part of a group of ecologically vulnerable bodies of water scattered along the Uruguayan coast. Sixteen round concrete pillars are placed every 20 meters supporting two ramps and a central traffic circle while pedestrian walkways provide access to the central space of the bridge and its perimeter, allowing visitors to sit, fish, and appreciate the site.

At the intersection of Park Avenue and East 57th Street, the 424-meter-tall residential and multi-use tower represents a slender, lightweight volume defined by a grid of 10-meter-square windows enclosing the exposed concrete structural frame attached to a concrete core. The design of this open structure is based on the geometry of the square and within it, seven "free-standing buildings" are superimposed, separated by spaces where the core of the building is exposed to the exterior elements. At the base of the building, a public plaza and a volume of commercial spaces are located, making reference to the geometry of the tower and preserving their own functional and architectural identities.

Inside the University City of the University of Buenos Aires, stands the Zero + Infinity pavilion belonging to the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences. Integrating teaching and research in the same space, the building proposed by Viñoly houses computer classrooms, offices, laboratories, a library, and multimedia rooms symbolizing a vision of the future. Its name comes from the figures that represent the contours of its two internal tree-lined courtyards: "zero" and "infinity". With more than 8700 square meters of green roof over its entire surface and a fully glazed perimeter, the building has two floors and a service basement where each of the rooms seeks to take advantage of natural light.