Morning glory

It is always a good thing to wake up in the morning. Especially in a beautiful sunny day, crisp and clear.

Buenos Aires in the summer could be extremely hot, humid and just horrible, so this morning we look up to the most wonderful blue sky and realize that the cool breeze from the South is blowing and soon we will be wearing sweaters again.

A little sample of our headquarters here in this beautiful, crazy, amazing and derelict city of Buenos Aires, where sometimes you forget you are not in Europe only to realize all of a sudden that you are deep in South America. In the background, Marina Frederking singing "I wanna hold your hand".

Viva la vida, let's celebrate life!.

I wanna hold your hand

We were invited to the launch party to celebrate the release of Marina Frederking's album, VERME.
It was a fantastic meeting of beautiful people, good food and open bar that lasted well into the wee hours.
Marina is an extremely talented and sexy artist, and in this album she is showing that a cover version is much, much more than a new performance of a popular song. She is indeed showing her true colors in all 10 tracks, really touching our souls with her warm voice. Our pick? "I wanna hold your hand"...

You can get an idea of how exciting the performance was clicking on this link
http://soundcloud.com/marinafrederking/sets/verme/

Marina Frederking
VERME

Patagonia, land of dreams

Everything started with a glass of red wine. Piero Incisa della Rocchetta (of the italian family behind Sassicaia, the great Super Tuscan wine) tasted in New York a fantastic Pinot Noir from a vineyard in Patagonia and he fell in love. It was a bottle of Humberto Canale by the danish winemaker Hans Vinding-Diers. Amazed by the quality of wines Hans was being able to make, he decided to start his own winery.

After a long and difficult search, he found a nearly abandoned vineyard in the Province of Rio Negro, with Pinot Noir vines that were over 70 years old (something unusual, because Argentina is land of Malbec). The funny thing is, the vineyard's owner initially refused to sell Piero the land. He told him that any commercial venture would fail. Piero respectfully ignored the prediction of bankruptcy and made a full commitment to follow his dream by buying the vineyard. Bodega Chacra was born.

The small vineyard from 1932 is the foundation for the winery. There are also parcels planted in 1955 and 1967, and another one with new plantings. Harvested manually, the vines are fermented naturally in large round cement vats with the minimum of intervention before being put into the oak barrels. Fermentation takes place naturally in the following six months, and the wines are then left undisturbed before being bottled without any filtration.

The results? Three of the most extraordinary and unique wines in Argentina: Chacra 32, Chacra 55 and Barda. They are easily the best Pinot Noir outside of Burgundy.

Andree Putman once said : "To not dare is to have already lost. We should seek out ambitious, even unrealistic projects…because things only happen when we dream".

We couldn't agree more.

Alrio

One of our latest projects is the sales showroom and model apartment for ALRIO, the most important real estate development in Argentina.

It comprises five residential buildings, office buildings, a shopping mall, a stadium, an open air Auditorium, a new park...the list goes on and on.

Alrio is located in Vicente Lopez, just outside the city, next to the river. A link between the upscale northern suburbs and Downtown Buenos Aires, this complex is really changing a whole area of the city and giving new meaning to the relationship between neighbours and their river, the big brown Rio de la Plata.

Alrio Sales Office

Avenida del Libertador 350, Piso 11

Vicente Lopez

I love cafe

After being in New York for so many years, we know a thing or two about coffee shops, cafes or whatever you like to call them. Considering the lack of space in Manhattan, they tend to be small, very small or tiny.

Downtown, where the charming ones we like are located, around Tribeca, Nolita and further east, we can find our favorite places to enjoy capuccinos and some sweets.

So, when a group of three friends decided to open the Argentine version of the kind of places we love (the Downtown cafe), it was very clear for us the way to go. Small? No problem, a few tables and chairs, a banquette, a couple of counters... We also had this idea of throwing a bit of London in the mix, especially because one of the owners spends part of the year in England with her polo player husband. And she adores London.

And then it was the color...Everything in the store under 3 feet high is painted red, everything above that is a shade of old parchment very shiny.

"I love cafe", that's the name of this magical place. Coffee to go and fresh food, good music, nice people in the heart of Recoleta. What's not to love?

Rodriguez Peña 1714

Buenos Aires

View from the Top

First there was the view. Then the apartment, in a nondescript building from the 70's. Nothing special about it, no old parquet or marble fireplaces this time...Just a boring and plain box...but what a view!. Overlooking Palermo park, the rose gardens, the Planetarium, the race tracks, the river...

The social area is on the 13th floor, upstairs the bedrooms and bathrooms, and then one more flight of stairs and voila!, you are in the barbecue room, the "quincho"...that sacred place where Argentines get together to enjoy the best beef in the World. Actually is more of a ritual, that ancestral thing of enjoying your family and friends around food and wine...You know, latin blood that is.

Eat, love, drink. And in this particular case, with a view to kill for.

French touch it's done

Our mission has been accomplished, the owner moved in with her family and everything is under control.

The charm of these old apartments is undeniably argentine. We like of think of it as "parisian-meets-the pampas", an unique combination of Old World tradition blended with the unique lifestyle that you can only find in this part of the Americas.

French touch

A french inspired building from 1910's. An apartment that has not been touched in over 50 years (not even cleaned!). High ceilings (over 3,40 meters high), magnificent panelled wood doors with a million coats of paint, two tiny and awkward bathrooms, a creepy mini kitchen and a carpet of an undescript colour (we guess it was light blue when it was installed, probably when Peron was ruling the country in the 50's).

That was the picture we saw when they called us to help with the renovation. Buenos Aires is full of those surprises. A combination of faded grandeur and half a century of harsh economy combine to create something that you rarely see in other places (especially not in New York).

The way they lived, those fancy argentinians from the Belle Epoque! Now, things have changed, and an apartment like this needs a new life. We are bringing new plumbing, electrical, paint (yes please!) and especially water and soap to clean those magnificent windows that overlook ancient trees.

A french touch s'il vous plait, for an absolutely wonderful, neurotic, sexy and noisy city. There is no place like home.

Attitude for destruction

There is something absolutely exciting about renovating an apartment...the thrill of the first knock on the wall, bricks falling down, the occasional chunk of old plaster hitting the floor...Dust, old pipes, wood floor, tiles, old cabinets...The old stuff is gone.

Walls falling down give place to new rooms. It is not a living room next to a dining room next to a library anymore...no way. Now we have this huge space, flooded with light...now we can see the four french doors leading to this amazing garden...a classical building from the 40's, where the owners (a young couple) trustred us with the mission of converting the ground floor apartment into something new and really special.

Right now it is only destruction, but soon we will have a new kitchen, a big bathroom and THAT walking closet that you only see on films. And a garden for Olga, the black lab.

All quiet on the Southern front

We have received a lot of emails asking about our lives, what is going on and why this blog has been so quiet.

The answer is very simple: we are incredibly busy, and after a few weeks of silence it is increasingly difficult to come back to this blog... We are spending a lot of time in South America (Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica...) working a lot in renovations and new projects, so there is no time whatsoever to post anything...

So we think The Chukker will rest for a while.

Best

http://www.chukker.net/

Happy Holidays

It`s been really quiet lately around here. We have so many things to do --work related, here in Buenos Aires as well as in Punta del Este--that we have no time for posting anything.

We will be back soon, the city is full of new and exciting things to do. For the time being, we leave you with the beautiful Christmas tree from Galerias Pacifico shopping mall along our warmest wishes for 2010.


The Chukker team

Photoshoot

We were asked by our friend, photographer Alejandra Lopez, to be generous and lend our terrace in Buenos Aires for a fashion photoshoot. It took about five seconds to say yes, especially after knowing that gorgeous Sofia Zamolo was the one and only model.

So, about a week ago we had this very cool crew coming over and spending a lovely and windy afternoon shooting different outfits for the upcoming Holiday season. Everybody was great, and we had a great time.

If you click here, you will see the backstage of the shooting...turn your speakers on and enjoy!

Naturaleza Aguirre Mar: party pictures

As our readers already know, we were involved in the design of the new store that Argentinian furniture maker Eugenio Aguirre opened last Monday in Buenos Aires. This new line is called Naturaleza Aguirre Mar (Mar meaning ocean in Spanish). So the whole concept was a new idea for the brand: we wanted to recreate the feeling of a beach house in a great location--French Caribbean, anyone?-- so we decided to build something between a store and a house.

The space is divided into a series of interconnected rooms, each of them displaying a different situation: bedroom, living room, family room...it's been done before (Ralph Lauren's store on Madison Avenue in New York is probably the best example) but it is a new idea in Buenos Aires, where all the furniture showrooms are just stores selling goods. Period.

The opening reception was held last Monday, and we probably had over 2,000 people attending. The party started at 6,30 and lasted until the last guests were basically asked to leave at 11,30 pm! There was a tent outside with two bars, live music, a great catering and a never ending supply of wine. The weather was really great--a wonderful summer night--so guests really enjoyed an unbelievable celebration.

We are already working on a project in Punta del Este in which this whole concept will be developed into an even bigger and more sophisticated space...This city is a summer resort that has always been THE place to be in January and February (our summer) so it is a fantastic opportunity to showcase this amazing new line.

Naturaleza Aguirre Mar

Buenos Aires Design Center

Av. Pueyrredon 2501 - (+54.11) 5777.6109