Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has been named architecture director of the 2016 Venice Biennale, in a decision made by Biennale's Board on July 18. Known for award-winning architectural work under his own Santiao-based firm, Alejandro Aravena Architects, Aravena also serves as the executive director for ELEMENTAL, an “Urban Do Tank” focused on social housing, which he founded in collaboration with his architecture alma mater, Universidad Católica de Chile, and the Chilean Oil Company (COPEC). His work has previously been featured both in the 2008 and 2012 Venice Biennales, winning the Silver Lion in 2008. He was a visiting professor at Harvard University (2000 - 2005), and has served on the Pritzker Prize Jury since 2009.

Regarding the theme of the 2016 Biennale, Aravena has proposed a focus on inspiring, vanguard work in architecture, and to exhibit “success stories worth to be told and exemplary cases worth to be shared where architecture did, is and will make a difference in those battles and frontiers”, he explained in a statement following his nomination. According to President of the Biennale, Paolo Baratta, Aravena’s appointment was a very conscious follow-up to 2014’s Architecture director, Rem Koolhaas. The hope was to offer a more outward-focused curatorial direction to Koolhaas’ “Fundamentals”, which emphasized pure curatorial research; in Aravena’s words: “We would like to present cases that, despite the difficulties, instead of resignation or bitterness, propose and do something.”

Baratta also commented on the dissonance between the architects themselves and the urban public in today’s society, leading to a disenchantment of architecture’s potentials and an over-reliance on spectacle. He posed Aravena as an antidote to this situation.

Monica Ponce de Leon, co-curator along with Cynthia Davidson of the U.S. Pavilion for the 2016 Biennale, responded with excitement to Aravena's appointment: "He is an imaginative architect with a rich intellect and his vision will make for a rich conversation about the possibilities of architecture in the 21st century."

For more on Alejandro Aravena and the 2016 Venice Biennale:

• Monica Ponce de Leon and Cynthia Davidson will curate US Pavilion at 2016 Venice Biennale
• U.S. Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale, "The Architectural Imagination", now open for submissions
• Chilean architecture is coming out of its shell