A Disused Historic Home in Argentina’s Cowboy Country Becomes a Young Family’s Rural Refuge

It had all the right original details for their dream renovation, but first they had to convince the feuding owners to sell it.

May 7, 2024 - 15:51
A Disused Historic Home in Argentina’s Cowboy Country Becomes a Young Family’s Rural Refuge

It had all the right original details for their dream renovation, but first they had to convince the feuding owners to sell it.

The ground is parched and dusty in the old quarter of San Antonio de Areco as we pull into Julián Benedit Prebisch and Micaela Suide’s home for an asado, or Argentine barbecue. All is quiet except for buzzing bees and chirping cicadas.

Artist Julián Benedit Prebisch and designer Micaela Suide bought a casa chorizo—a colonial housing type with rows of rooms that connect to a central patio—in a town in Argentina’s rural Pampas region. The front door opens to a long hall with original floor tiles, where their son, Florian, plays.

The couple’s life in Argentina’s rural Pampas region is a far cry from the bustle they left behind in Buenos Aires. Julián, an artist, and Micaela, a textile designer, had been living in the capital when the Covid pandemic struck in early 2020. Later that year, their son, Florian, was born, and they started to feel claustrophobic in the city.

When lockdown restrictions were relaxed that September they began to escape to Santa Coloma, a small Pampas town less than two hours north of the city, where Julián’s family has a weekend home. On the way, they would often stop in San Antonio de Areco to stock up on fuel and provisions, then linger over lunch and explore the neighborhood’s 18th-century old quarter and colonial residences.

A taste for art and architecture runs in the family: Julián’s grandfather was the distinguished Argentine architect Alberto Prebisch, who designed the Obelisk and other notable buildings in Buenos Aires.

"We saw the space we could have here—in Buenos Aires, it would be impossible."

—Julián Benedit Prebisch, resident

Florian’s bedroom sits across from the showroom for Micaela’s lifestyle brand, Agave. The burnt-red trim of the door that connects the hall to the bedroom matches the other wood-and-glass doors and windows, as well as the custom kitchen cabinets.

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Disused Historic Home in Argentina’s Cowboy Country Becomes a Young Family’s Rural Refuge
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