Rescue and Cultural Record of the Central Workshops of YPF (Fiscal oilfields): Illustrated Reportage in TIP S.A., Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina by Lia Navarro

WHAT THE HECK IS THAT???
I’ve been living here, in Comodoro Rivadavia, Patagonia, for the last 20 years.
Why haven’t I seen this crane before???
Maybe because it was behind the workshops.
So it moves! And if it moves, it’s active…
This is how it all began.

That moment marked the beginning of my exploration of the Central Workshops of YPF, one of the most important but overlooked industrial complexes in Argentina.

SERIES 1: The Workshops Are Surrounded
This group of sheds—once the core of Argentina’s oil production infrastructure—is now surrounded by the steady, creeping process of urbanization. Streets, neighborhoods, and commercial buildings have grown up around them, absorbing the workshops into the fabric of the city. And little by little, the city is swallowing them.

These spaces are often passed by, unrecognized for what they are or once were.

SERIES 2: The Company Town
The Central Workshops belong to what was once a structured and self-contained Company Town created by YPF, the Argentine national oil company. Comodoro Rivadavia itself grew from seven different such towns, each with its own culture and architecture. The one in Km3—where the workshops are located—was the main one and served as the operational heart of Argentina’s oil industry.

Here, I try to capture the multiple inner façades and skylines of the many buildings that make up the complex—both perspectives and elevation views that show how the site was designed to function like a city within a city.

SERIES 3: Solid Light
The interiors of the workshops are immense and solemn. The light pours in from above—zenithal, diffused, reverent. It feels like a sacred space, echoing the architecture of a cathedral. And the silence… it’s so thick you can almost hear the voices, footsteps, and clanging tools from decades past.

Using only indigo and yellow, I tried to transmit the heavy, meditative atmosphere that defines these interior spaces.

SERIES 4: Someone Was Here
Amid the machinery and vastness of the sheds are tiny, human-scale details—signs of skilled, loving hands that once shaped every object around them. There is artistry in these functional spaces.

I showed one of my watercolors to some former workers. They pointed to a chair I had drawn and told me it was made by Santiago Antonio Barrionuevo, who worked here from 1944 to 1968. He crafted the chair from a tractor seat. His daughter is now 72, and his grandson—an industrial designer—cherishes the piece as a family treasure.

The chair is still there. This story, and countless others like it, live on in the very fabric of these buildings.

THANK YOU!
This illustrated reportage is an ongoing act of preservation. It’s my way of paying tribute to the Central Workshops, to the people who worked there, and to the industrial heritage of Comodoro Rivadavia.