link to the announcement

Always liked his housing projects.

Good choice! The last few years indicate the pritzker commitee has made it their mission to look for a more holistic kind of architect than the ones we usually think of as established successes - but whose work results in beautiful projects. It's satisfying to see.

One of the best lectures I attended back in grad school was from him.

Didn't see that one coming, but good choice!  Guess it's safe to say Holl is never winning....

From the announcement:

Each building shows an understanding of how people will use the facility, the thoughtful and appropriate use of materials, and a commitment to creating public spaces to benefit the larger community. 

This. This is what we need to do. But these qualities tend to be hard to photograph!

does this means he can start asking for a million dollars retainer fee?

Clearly, the game has shifted from the form driven architectural development to socially driven development. That is why the game is over for many architects who built their reputation on form based development. The key to socially driven development in architecture is that you can't really do it if you don't have it in you politically.
Having social responsibility in architecture is the new form that has regaining momentum. It has been dormant for a generation or two.  Look it up,1968 and beyond.
I have to say this though, Alejandro looks like a fashion icon too.
 

Great choice, also within the history of South American social modernism, which is not new but looks like he has a new take on it. As he has said, architects shouldn't do charity, they have to do real projects (paraphrasing). Most social projects end up looking like garb... Doesn't have to.  

But I also will say if Steven Holl doesn't win in the next 2-3 years, Pritzker loses a bit of credibility. Holl has designed every program type: housing, cultural, academic. Love the idea of focusing more on other countries, but think the humanistic ideas Holl has applied to various project types deserves recognition. 

"The PC takeover of architecture is complete: Pritzker Prize mutates into a prize for humanitarian work. The role of the architect is now “to serve greater social and humanitarian needs” and the new Laureate is hailed for “tackling the global housing crisis” and for his concern for the underprivileged. Architecture loses its specific societal task and responsibility, architectural innovation is replaced by the demonstration of noble intentions and the discipline’s criteria of success and excellence dissolve in the vague do-good-feel-good pursuit of ‘social justice’. I respect was Alejandro Aravena is doing and his "half a good house" developments are an intelligent response. However, this is not the frontier where architecture and urban design participate in advancing the next stage of our global high density urban civilisation. I would not object to this year’s choice half as much if this safe and comforting validation of humanitarian concern was not part of a wider trend in contemporary architecture that in my view signals an unfortunate confusion, bad conscience, lack of confidence, vitality and courage about the discipline’s own unique contribution to the world."
 

-Patrik Shumacher

Who?

If form is in any way derived from program/function/constraints as it should be, then new formal manifestations should be rooted in new programmatic pursuits/challenges.  By addressing social issues Aravena is doing just that.  Like Ban, He is achieving a unique aesthetic that is consequential of a deeper pursuit.  If form itself is the goal, then sculpture is a more appropriate way to explore it than architecture.  Nothing wrong with that either.  As I have said before, Art creates noise from silence, architecture creates silence from noise.  A different source of "noise" should open up a different architecture.  Social issues, because of their unique constraints, do just that.  I do wish the Prizker would also expand its horizon to include some of the more environmentally progressive architects out there.

and patrik thinks he is advancing something, how cute...

Think criticism of "socially-conscious" projects is valid, but Patrik is missing the point here. AA seems like he is fighting the same battle to make the world better designed... But design manifests differently with different programs and different clients he has to realize that he is taking too extremist of a position that will lost him all support. 

My criticism of this choice is more along the lines of: his work is mediocre and not worthy of what is supposed to be the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for architecture.

I've always admired his approach in architecture :)

@OP- see, bjarke is quite the opposite of this prize! 

gwharton it's ironic that you bring up the Nobel Prize. The Nobel is awarded to work that has "conferred the greatest benefit to mankind".  So, comparing the Pritzker to the Nobel is ironic, because this year the winner seems to be more in line with the Nobel's goals, and less in line with the Pritzker's previously held goals.

I'm assuming you're comparing it the the Nobel's stature, not to its intents. I'm curious if this signals a change in the intent of the Pritzker. So now I'm already curious who will win next year's prize.

^ I agree, to me the Pritzker was more like the Best Picture Oscar than the Nobel.

Now it seems to make more sense in terms of advocacy and symbolism for the profession to have work that has a higher sense of purpose.

ghwarton: What makes his work mediocre? You should know better than to toss out an opinion in front of a bunch of architects without exhaustive reasoning to back it up.

surely his work isn't mediocre, ghwarton. his ouevre isn't as extensive as many of the stars out there but it's definitely great work.

i felt it would be more in the realm of Glenn Murckett and clearly Schumacher knew this based on response.........will have to get learn about his work.............as far as mediocre goes, ummmm, so far i am 75% satisified with a 200 sqft job i did once and that is the only job i think i would call part of my ouvre. i have worked on at least 500 projects in ny short career. pretty sure you have to be mildly badass to build anything he is doing....

Due to my own ignorance I always thought that the Pritzker Prize was given to the architect that the Pritzker People thought was the "MVP for architecture for the year" and not for an altruistic hidden meaning in the drawings. 

Is there an award or prize given out that does represent the best building or architect of the year, the  architectural MVP? 

Putting all of the politics and architectural philosophy speak aside and getting back to what matters, the buildings. Alenjandro A (I call him that him that all the time he digs it) has some nice stuff.

CASA OCHO QUEBRADAS is an example. I love the primal design and how just three simple forms that are essential to just about every building built can be used to imply  grounding, movement and stability.

The grounding of the base rectangle that is not just on the ground but buried in the earth not only anchors the whole house but almost makes it an organic product. The tilted chimney / skylight block is our movement of course. The simple beauty of this is that every human will have the sensation of movement when seeing this it is just logic, organic and primal, made even more visual by being caught by the vertical block. And this block is part of the stability, reinforcing the sense of strength by not letting the chimney fall over.

A brilliantly complex design that is executed simply with simple components.

My favorite part is how one chimney corner is projected  past the lower block. This little detail reinforces the notion of  one block sitting independently of another.

Don't forget to raise this section up a little so that the finish material touches the finish material on the lower block.     

I like some of the work - brutalist concrete - 

most of it is rough as guts - especially stuff in the modernist vein/steel and glass  - poorly built - maybe from crappy detailing/unskilled labor.  dunno.

Also interesting to compare that work to something built in the US where we have to comply with strict energy/building codes - I gotta ask is somebody practicing in the US or Europe even in the same game as architects that don't have to deal with any of that?

Prtizker is weird - some years it is totally who you would expect - superstars - other years total unknowns.  I think this guy has good intentions and conceptual basis for the work but nothing to write home about in executed form.