Riberas Clubhouse in Puertos, Belén de Escobar, is conceived as a low-profile landform at the lake’s edge: an elevated plaza and planted roof that fold into the ground, connecting interior programs with a public promenade. A curving concrete shell provides both structure and surface, supporting a usable green roof while preserving long horizon lines and rare dual views across adjacent lakes. The project extends into the site with grass berms that replace fences around the sports fields, turning thresholds into places to sit, gather, and watch.
Riberas Clubhouse Technical Information
- Architects: Estudio Ramos
- Location: Belén de Escobar, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
- Gross Area: 415 m2 | 4,467 Sq. Ft.
- Completion Year: 2023
- Photographs: © Daniela Mac Adden
We were drawn to the idea that architecture could play an active role in fostering community. If the space is engaging and inviting, it can bring people together. For us, the challenge was not only designing a building, it was helping to cultivate a sense of belonging.
– Estudio Ramos
Landform Architecture at the Water’s Edge
The project operates as an elevated plaza that skims the terrain, utilizing a minimal vertical profile to maintain an unbroken horizon while leveraging a slight rise to capture simultaneous views of two lakes. This sectional lift is slight but decisive, turning topography into a viewing instrument and making the sky and water the principal figures in the composition. The building reads less as an object and more as a calibrated extension of the shoreline.
A planted roof descends to the ground as a gentle ramp, transforming circulation into a public promenade. The movement from ground to roof is continuous, without steps or thresholds, so the roof becomes a shared terrace for sunrise classes, informal walks, and quiet viewing. The strategy privileges landscape continuity over figure-ground separation, reframing the clubhouse as a piece of civic terrain that gathers rather than interrupts the site.
Concrete Shell as Structure and Surface
A continuous curved concrete shell acts as structure, enclosure, and landscape support in a single tectonic system. The shell geometry distributes loads from the green roof and subtle soil buildup across broad, flowing surfaces, enabling the roof to perform as a walkable public ground. This consolidation of roles reduces secondary elements and articulates a clear structural logic legible both inside and out.
Where the shell meets the earth, its edges soften into the terrain, avoiding retaining walls and hard plinths. The envelope thickens where needed for span and soil depth, then thins as it merges with the ground, producing a gradated boundary rather than a line. The result is a subdued formal presence that recedes in long views, yet maintains a crisp tectonic reading at the scale of detail, joints, and soffit curvature.
Programmatic Clarity and Everyday Use
A central circulation core organizes the plan into two clear halves. On one side, a reservable event room accommodates structured gatherings and can operate independently, with access to service and acoustic separation. On the other hand, an informal lounge facilitates daily use, enabling the building to host multiple activities simultaneously without operational conflicts.
The lounge offers comfort, natural daylight, and stunning views across the lake, making it an ideal space for casual meetings, reading, or coworking. Large apertures align with the roof promenade and adjacent landscape, ensuring that interior occupation remains visually connected to the outdoor environment. The plan’s legibility allows residents to intuit how to inhabit the building, aligning programmed events with unprogrammed occupation and maintaining permeability between the interior, terrace, and ground.
Landscape Interfaces and Active Thresholds
Beyond the clubhouse, sculpted, grass-covered berms replace conventional fences around the tennis courts and football field. These topographic edges function as seating, play surfaces, and incidental gathering spaces, turning what would be barriers into active social infrastructure. The berms moderate wind, absorb runoff, and offer a softer acoustic buffer than rigid enclosures.
Continuous ground surfaces link sports areas, the roof terrace, and interiors, establishing a porous network of routes and vantage points. Sightlines extend from the promenade through the lounge toward the water, binding the ensemble into a coherent public realm. In this arrangement, formal play, informal gathering, and passive viewing coexist within a landscape-led framework that prioritizes long views and shared occupation of the lake’s edge.
About Estudio Ramos
Estudio Ramos is an architecture studio based in Argentina, founded in 2002. Known for its sensitive integration of architecture and landscape, the firm emphasizes unified spatial, structural, and material systems. Their work often explores the expressive potential of concrete, seeking to cultivate strong bonds between built form and the natural environment.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Puertos
- Architects: Estudio Ramos
