Pops of Color and a Concrete Cube Make This Argentina Retreat Like "a Ball Pit for Grown-Ups"

Recalling a friend’s reaction upon visiting her new home outside Rosario, Argentina, for the first time, Emilia "Emi" Porfiri laughs. "She called it a ball pit for grown-ups," Emi says. The square, one-room house, filled with bursts of color, has an undeniably playful quality about it.

Emi, a professional translator in her early 30s, was looking to build an affordable first home, not a forever home or a place where she might eventually bring up kids. She wanted to focus on her needs in the here and now, not the future.

Born and raised in Rosario, she traveled extensively before the Covid pandemic, but it was during the lockdowns that she truly recognized the flexible nature of her remote work. Coordinating translations for a gaming start-up meant that she could work from anywhere in the world.

As she embraced a more nomadic lifestyle, splitting time between Argentina and various locations in Europe, Emi explored the possibility of buying land and building a home that would suit the dynamic she had adopted in recent years. A friend of her mother’s had bought a holiday home in Rincón, an outlying neighborhood in the sleepy town of Pavón, and the area appealed to Emi. It’s a place where many Rosarians have weekend retreats.