Ground Realities: Material Interactions in the Construction of the Buenos Aires Subway, 1933-44

How does the material world intervene in assembling infrastructure? This study examines the extension of the Buenos Aires subway during the 1930s and 1940s, using the concepts of "constructability" and "ability" as analytical lenses to reveal three interpretative layers-tunneling, concrete, and soil-that reflect varying degrees of human-nonhuman interaction and agency. By foregrounding the material aspects of the subway-building process, the article shows how concrete, locally available materials, and the urban environment challenged and recalibrated the German contractors' managerial approach. While acknowledging the ways materials can support or constrain human action, this article disputes the idea that materials possess independent agency. Instead, it calls for a more precise understanding of the physical aspects of construction that shape the material-human interface.