Maison du Docteur Curutchet

The building was commissioned by Dr. Pedro Domingo Curutchet an Argentinean surgeon and a modern erudite man, who had a wide range of artistic interests especially in the areas of music, painting, and literature.  In his mid-forties he decided to establish his surgical practice in La Plata.  He owned a small but superbly located plot where he intended to build a combination of small surgical consultation office and single-family residence. 

He approached Le Corbusier through his sister Leonor who in 1948 travelled to Paris for personal reasons.  Leonor and Le Corbusier met at the Atelier on the rue de Sèvres on September 3, 1948.  Le Corbusier did not take long to accept the commission because he found it “extremely seductive.”  He wrote to his client that he intended to produce a “small masterpiece of simplicity, conformity, and harmony.”

The family occupied the building for only a few years.  However, Dr. Curutchet continued using it for overnight stays during his somehow frequent trips to La Plata until the late 1970s.   Coinciding with the centennial of Le Corbusier’s birth, in 1987 the house was declared a National Historic Monument.  At the same time, Fundación Christmann (a non-profit institution for surgical research) selected it as its headquarters and commissioned a full restoration project undertaken by architects Luis and Julio Grossman.  However, Fundación Christmann occupied the building for only one year.  In 1991, the building welcomed a new tenant: the Colegio de Arquitectos de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, a professional association that coordinates and manages all aspects of the building and uses it for numerous cultural activities. Still owned by Dr. Curutchet’s heirs, since 2016 is part of the Transnational Series inscribed on the World Heritage List.