The Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has been named Pritzker Prize Laureate for 2016. The 48-year old is known for his socially-minded work at various scales in Chile, produced under two forms of practice – principal of his private firm, Alejandro Aravena Architects, and executive director of the “Do Tank”, ELEMENTAL, both based in Santiago. He is the first Chilean architect to receive the prize, and one of the youngest.
↑ Anacleto Angelini, 2014, San Joaquín Campus, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago
↑ Siamese Towers, 2005, San Joaquín Campus, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago
Although Aravena's most recognizable work might be his multiple projects for Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago – the UC Innovation Center includes Anacleto Angelini (2014), the Siamese Towers (2005), Medical School (2004), School of Architecture (2004), and the Mathematics School (1999) – the most significant note mentioned in the jury's citation is his commitment to social housing, mostly through his work with ELEMENTAL. The jury writes, Aravena "epitomizes the revival of a more socially engaged architect," and is committed to resolving the global housing crisis. This aligns Aravena with concerns outlined recently in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, signaling what the jury sees as a much-needed shift in the profession.
↑ Villa Verde House, 2004, Iquique, Chile
The jury also takes note of Aravena's design methodology, developing projects from start to finish alongside all invested parties, and operating from multiple perspectives throughout the process:
The younger generation of architects and designers who are looking for opportunities to affect change, can learn from the way Alejandro Aravena takes on multiple roles instead of the singular position of a designer to facilitate a housing project, and by doing so, discovers that such opportunities may be created by architects themselves. Through this approach, he gives the profession of architect a new dimension, which is necessary to respond to present demands and meet future challenges of the field.
↑ Bicentennial Children’s Park, 2012, Santiago, Chile
Upon receiving the prize, Aravena wrote: "No achievement is individual. Architecture is a collective discipline. So we think, with gratitude, of all the people who contributed to give form to a huge diversity of forces at play."
From 2009 - 2015, Aravena served as a juror for the Pritzker Prize. Jury members have also been Laureates before, but Aravena is one of the few (along with Shigeru Ban and Fumihiko Maki) to have been cited after serving on the jury. He was also a visiting professor at Harvard's GSD from 2000 - 2005. This year, he will direct the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, under the title, "Reporting from the Front".
Here on Archinect, Aravena has been singled out as a significant figure since his work at the GSD became visible, in the early 2000s. We'll be discussing Aravaena's work and the Pritzker on the upcoming episode of Archinect Sessions, out tomorrow.
↑ Quinta Monroy Housing, 2004, Iquique, Chile
The formal award ceremony will be held on April 4, 2016, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. More information on the citation can be found on Bustler.
Peruse the gallery below for more examples of Aravena's work.
2016 Announcement Video from The Pritzker Architecture Prize on Vimeo.
16 Comments
This guy won a Pritzker? WTF?
Pritzker always seems to get it right. ELEMENTAL is doing great work--great buildings that aren't just "socially responsible" but actually nice to live in.
Still think Holl Should win next year.... His work is just too damn good (in all project types).
At last the hand-wringing can stop. Now let the complaining (or congratulations) begin!
Congratulations, he certainly deserve it.
Congratulations! The Bernie Sanders of architecture.
If Patrik Schumacher is upset about it, it must be a great pick! Congratulations are in order.
Patrik Schumacher's remarks on Twitter sound informed, but also a product of an architect who is rather self-absorbed. There are many of us who find his own architectural aesthetic more than a little off-putting. Reg this award Schumacher says:
"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’"
The shame is that Alejandro Araveda is more than qualified as a maker of new forms. Formal forms (for universities) and vernacular forms (for housing), but Schumacher is unwilling to acknowledge this. As Robert Stern once said of Zaha Hadid (paraphrase from memory): "I love Zaha, but I wouldn't want to see a building by her on every corner." Enough said.
wait, those siamese towers are not parametric?
Fuck Schumacher, who cares what that powerless sycophant asshole thinks.
As for Aravena, the question is simple: can he and his work survive the instantaneous global success bestowed by the Oscar, er ... Pritzker?
^of course he can, he's already ahead of the curve slaving as many interns as he can.
I see a luxury condo project on the High Line in his future.
^would actually like to see that.
Good work, but DOES NOT deserve the Pritzker
a "Nobel prize" is about doing "Nobel architecture" ...addressing real issues in this world, giving everyone the opportunity to live and experience a comfortable beautiful spaces... some architects need to stop thinking that their job is to design luxurious spaces and create crazy forms, and rather speak to humans on a human level... Aravena was the first responder!
if you have any other suggestions, or your favorite starchitect didn't win, please make sure their names would be nominated for next year,,,
It's about what message this "prize" is sending to the professionals out there, what's next for the profession?
Actually, I think Patrick Schumacher's idea of what architecture can and ought to be is in many ways properly idealistic and correct. Problem is, his idea of what "architectural innovation" is does not include Alejandro Aravena's work. Aravena is a fine and accomplished contemporary architect. And, quite often, the sort of architectural innovation I really like does not include Schumacher's design aesthetic.
Shoemuncher: 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
to further develop resource-intense, unsustainable, unworkable and unmaintainable buildings for the .01% in exclusive enclaves like Lieberland. That's not innovation, that's sucking dick. Hard to believe anyone is still buying into his bullshit.
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