The house where the painter Xul Solar lived, is located in 1212, Laprida street in the district of Palermo, Buenos Aires . Older than one hundred years the building had two stories and an attic in a plot of 400 m2 ; 20 meters wide and 10 meters deep. The street front is about twenty meters wide and ten meters deep, over a total surface of 400 m2 . Originally it was a house with four apartments; two at ground level and two in the upper one. Xul Solar's lived, until his death in 1963, in the largest one.

The architectural program to rebuild the original building, taking into account the new needs aroused by its new destination, was conceived under the guidance of Miacela “Lita” Cadenas, Xul Solar's wife, heiress and responsible for the continuity of his projects and ideas. With this intention she created in 1986 the Pan Klub Foundation (Fundación Pan Klub) in 1986; devoted to administrate the altruist legacy, his works and creation and the whole of the creations, personal belongings as well as the spaces were he lived.

According to Lita's requirements a main hall -the Pan Klub Hall- to be used for various cultural activities, was conceived to be complemented by three galleries. One of these galleries is connected to the main entrance and was created to held temporary exhibitions, while another, connected to the particular house through a spiral staircase leads to the painter's house, is used for meetings of the Pan Klub Foundation. The entire museum's space hold 86 works by Xul Solar in permanent exhibition. There are also some showcases which display various artistic objects created by Xul Solar, as well as testimonial documents, different publications, scripts and letters. 

The rebuilding and the enlargement project, was conceived interpreting the peculiar pictorial cosmovison of Xul Solar, re-creating in the principal gallery the main features of the very special heart of a Buenos Aires city block. The relationship between the Museum and the street is held by means of a glassed doorway which interrupts the old building's façade to hold the public Main Entrance. The plaster of the façade was worked out with the aim of regain its original aspect, replacing the gone molding and sculptures.

Inside the building, the walls and masonry "bovedillas" (masonry and wood slabs) were changed by new reinforced concrete slabs -following the perceptions of a promenade from the entrance- gaining free space by the elimination of the supporting elements in the lower level. The space composes a new structural tissue and organizes an interior promenade through different museum's places.

Almost all the original masonry walls were replaced, with the only exception of the façade and also two reduced volumes on the side walls. This was included in the definitive project, as well as the access stairs which give entrance in 1214 Laprida to the upper level.

The site of the antique gardens located in the back of the plot, was filled by buildings integrated to the new plan at the ground floor, augmented by new mezzanines open to the visitors. In the new basement storey, air conditioning and water bombing services were installed and a room for different storage elements of the Pan Klub Hall was provided. The project contemplated public toilettes and also two small rooms designated to serve as office and storage of maintenance elements.

The building's terraces have been divided and distributed to be added to the alternative promenades through the museum. The big walls which limit the plot are painted with colours evoking the ones used by Xul Solar in his urban and architectural works, and are a good complement by the blue "porteño" sky.

The Pan Klub Gallery gives room to 200 people. It has an area for cinema and audiovisual shows, provided with devices to control video, sound and lighting equipments.

A four independent modules rolling scenario was created, which can be pulled off to the Main Hall from an adjacent space, as well as the seats for the public.There are also a row of lights to be used for artistic and theatrical experiences.

From the street, the exterior appearance of the building privileges the memento of the house artist and its cultural meaning in the city.

In the interior, the architectural visions of Xul Solar are now nurtured by a new "reality": this new contemporary space incorporates itself to the veiled interiority of the urban tissue, whereas the real artist's home is suspended above the public places.

The painter's dwelling, kept intact and visible, is integrated to a promenade. There, thanks to the Pan Klub, his library, the furniture, rooms and ambience had been, and still are, the vital centre for the philanthropic and transcendent purposes of Xul Solar for Buenos Aires .

Arq. Pablo T. Beitía
Author and Project Manager