Urbanism & ecology in Buenos Aires: an overview throughout urban planning journey inside its regional context

Abstract Buenos Aires urbanization, inserted in a pampeano and rioplatense context, resulted in the development of a metropolitan area with significant population density. Over the last five decades the occupation of urban land even double the entire urban history of 430 years. This article aims to analyze the emergence of urbanism in Buenos Aires and its links with ecology, studying the origins of the urban planning discipline in Argentina (eg, Le Corbusier's functionalism and Della Paolera's organicism) and its relationship with the urban growth in Buenos Aires. Throughout the article we examine in which way the inclusion of some cognitive supports linking the city with the biological language operates. We underline the Metropolitan dimension around the region concept, that synthesizes the growth toward the pampa and the Río de la Plata river. To conclude, the “ecological urbanism” as a concept is introduced in Buenos Aires with slogans to plan and manage the city. In this regard, we propose the approach of the city as an ecosystem, revising synthetically the main implications of current urbanization.