The city after dark in Buenos Aires: Field notes from the Advanced Cooperation Mission

Buenos Aires (Argentina) | 26 – 28 May

The IURC programme held its Advanced Cooperation Mission in Buenos Aires as part of the Community of Practice on nighttime economy, bringing together representatives from Braga (Portugal) and Genoa (Italy) as European partners, and Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) from Latin America, hosted by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires.

Over three days, participants explored how Buenos Aires is building a strategic public policy around its nighttime economy — and exchanged tools, governance models and field experiences that will feed into each city.

Day 1 | Nightlife as public policy

The mission opened at the Casa de Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, where the city’s team presented the BA 24H Programme and the Retiro Abierto Project — two flagship public policies structuring Buenos Aires’ approach to the nighttime economy. The presentation laid out a strategy built on three core dimensions of urban life at night: resting, working and enjoying the city. What stood out for the participants was the methodological rigour behind it: a dedicated nightlife survey, neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood mapping of activities and challenges, reinforced nighttime cleaning services, coexistence mechanisms and channels for residents’ complaints.

The exchange with Braga and Genoa enriched the discussion. Braga brought its experience of involving students in nighttime urban life and a neighbourhood-based approach to managing opening hours that has helped reduce conflicts between residents and nighttime activity. Genoa contributed examples of trained public-private agents for conflict management and floated the idea of “Night of the Public Libraries” — a small but telling proposal about how cultural facilities can be activated after dark.

The day ended at Arthaus Central, a contemporary cultural venue housed in a historic bank building in downtown Buenos Aires, where a guided visit to the exhibition “Guillermo Kuitca: Diarios 2000–2025” and a welcome cocktail brought the group together with several representatives of the Buenos Aires municipal body.

Day 2 | Identity in motion

The second day centred on the Microcentro — Buenos Aires’ historic city centre and one of the main areas of focus within the CoP. A technical meeting at Palacio Lezama, attended by high-level representatives from several departments of the city government, set the strategic frame: the Microcentro is not a single homogeneous area, but a set of corridors and subzones with different identities, uses and rhythms, each requiring its own policy approach.

The meeting also touched on the city’s broader innovation ambitions, including the recently created sandbox for an AI District in the Microcentro and the potential of the Sandbox Law as an incentive framework for frontier technologies. The Minister of Economic Development of the city highlighted that “what matters is identity in motion: not the identity of the photograph, but the identity of the film.”

A guided walk through the area — taking in landmark buildings such as the Bank of London and the Banco Nación, as well as Plaza de Mayo and the Obelisco viewpoint — gave the discussion a concrete territorial grounding. The day ended with a thematic dinner and a walk along Avenida Corrientes, one of the city’s most iconic nighttime cultural axes, whose extended opening hours and programming — Night of the Bookshops, Night of the Museums — illustrate the kind of identity-driven activation Buenos Aires is pursuing.

Day 3 | Governance, stakeholders and the many nights of a city

A working session at Palacio Lezama brought together presentations from Braga, Genoa and Salvador de Bahia, each contributing a different dimension to the question of nighttime governance. Braga presented the Cities After Dark Handbook and the four main areas its network has explored to define governance models — noting that the BA 24H methodology is strongly aligned with the approaches developed by the ten Cities After Dark network cities. Genoa focused on stakeholder mapping and engagement, highlighting the importance of trusted intermediaries between communities and the municipality. Salvador de Bahia brought a distinct perspective: the city’s experience managing Carnival as a large-scale nighttime operation, with its specific demands around social protection for workers and safety for women.

Site visits in the afternoon gave the discussions a live dimension. A visit to Affaire–Galerías Larreta, a private artistic initiative transforming part of the Microcentro, was followed by an evening at the Night of Design in Distrito Arenales, where design shops and showrooms remained open as part of a coordinated district-wide activation — a small but vivid illustration of how nighttime economy policies can work when public vision meets private initiative

One reflection from Genoa captured the spirit of the day’s exchange well: “In one night, there are many nights.” Nighttime policies, the group agreed, must respond to the specific urban dynamics that emerge after dark in each neighbourhood, each city, each context — inclusive of the identities, needs and diversity of the people who inhabit them.

About the IURC LAC Advanced Cooperation Missions

IURC Latin America and the Caribbean, part of the International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) programme, connects cities and regions from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe to co-create sustainable, inclusive, and innovation-driven solutions. Through peer-to-peer exchange and partnerships, the programme contributes to improving citizens’ quality of life while strengthening global cooperation.

Advanced Cooperation Missions are on-site technical visits that build on the IURC programme’s collaborative and knowledge-sharing approach. They provide cities and regions with the opportunity to further develop the themes explored during the online meetings of the Communities of Practice, refine their cooperation action plans and gain first-hand experience of best practices implemented by the hosting city or region.