Design As Thinking

An architectural landmark can help anchor the grid of a city, just like a large atrium can help organize and assign order and meaning to the internal space of a building. Buenos Aires’ Obelisco draws the population of the city out for political rallies and celebrations of futbol victories. By functioning as a symbol of the city, it elevates any event that it witnesses to the status of being worthy of inscription in a historical narrative of Buenos Aires. In anchoring the physical space of the city it also helps the residents of the city organize and contextualize their memories. Its sharp point corner pins the physical grid while giving the residents of Buenos Aires a place they can rely on to localize their memories.

The presence of the Obelisco gives every image it appears in a potential of historical significance. It was erected in recent past to celebrate the founding the city and thus becomes a physical manifestation of the city’s existence through time. Its verticality helps to organize and frame the tourist photography that takes place around it. The Obelisico simultaneously structures the space of memory, the architectural/civic grid and the representational space of Buenos Aires.