Clorindo Testa (1923–2013) was an Italian-born Argentine architect and painter, one of the leaders of Argentine rationalism and a pioneer of brutalism in the country. Born in Benevento, near Naples, he came to architecture through naval and civil engineering and graduated from the University of Buenos Aires in 1948; after two years in Europe he also became a painter. Colour, tension and sculptural form run through his buildings, and he won Argentina's Konex Award for visual arts three times.
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In the 1950s he began the government centre in Santa Rosa, La Pampa Civic Centre (Casa de Gobierno) (1963). The Bank of London and South America in Buenos Aires (1966), designed by Testa within the SEPRA firm, set an exposed concrete structure among Beaux-Arts neighbours and changed how Argentine banks were built. The National Library of Argentina, designed with Francisco Bullrich and Alicia Cazzaniga in 1961, was begun only in 1971 and opened in 1992. Later works in Buenos Aires include the Hospital Naval Pedro Mallo (1981) and the Recoleta Cultural Center (1980). Clorindo Testa's buildings are studied for brutalism as sculpture.
La Pampa Civic Centre (Casa de Gobierno)1963 · Santa Rosa
Recoleta Cultural Center1980 · Buenos Aires
Bank of London and South America1966 · Buenos Aires
Hospital Naval Pedro Mallo1981 · Buenos Aires
National Library of Argentina1992 · Buenos Aires