When news broke yesterday that Alejandro Aravena was the winner of this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize, reactions were generally positive, albeit a bit conflicted. Aravena is most praised, and cited by the Pritzker, for his work on social housing projects in his home base of Santiago de Chile, where he operates as the executive director of the "do tank", ELEMENTAL. And few would contest that his work is worthy of the prize, despite the fact that he's only 48.
But Aravena was also a Pritzker juror from 2009 - 2015, serving alongside jurors who ultimately chose to cite him, and he isn't the first winner to have previously served on the jury. And as a juror, he was a vocal proponent of the Pritzker highlighting more socially-minded, communitarian work. This makes it impossible to ignore criticism that the award tends to stay within a pretty tight-knit circle of practitioners. Often described as the most prestigious architecture award out there, what is the point of the prize nowadays, and is its significance justified?
We wanted to know more about how the Pritzker is awarded, and its self-awareness in the eyes of architects as well as the greater public. On the day the Pritzker was announced, Martha Thorne, executive director of the Pritzker Prize, generously gave us insight into "the room where it happens" – how the jury's deliberation work, and what makes Aravena's work deserving of the prize.
Listen to episode 48 of Archinect Sessions, "Making A Pritzker Laureate" with Martha Thorne:
10 Comments
to summarize - to win the pritzker its good to be on the committee.
Essentially.
"only 48".
Yeah. OK. Like that's somehow young.
Stanford White designed Lovely Lane Chapel at the ripe old age of 31 and was a named partner at McKim Mead and White at 26.
The cult of age runs deep in architecture; archinect should stop enabling it.
Things shouldn't be this way. This is exactly why I am really happy about the possibility of having licensed architects coming into the field straight out of school.
null the reality is it takes a long ass time to get a building built, build a firm, and then build a building that matters and then do like 5 meaningful ones and by that time you are 50+.........i did work under an architect who made partner at a prominent NYC firm at a young age, he is one the first to be recognized in i think Architecture Leagues Young Architects, he made partner but remember there is business infrstructure that let him do what he did.....he is on his own now, still killin it! but in short there is NO way a kid out of school could put all this together without a massive trust fund and daddys lawyers and advisors.....somethings take real experienc........so 48 is YOUNG
http://archleague.org/2000/05/past-young-architects/ one of the 1987 kids. not Saee, for those who dont know an origial Morphosis guy with Rotundi and Mayne
So, by that measure, we should give Michael Arad, or Maya Lin a Pritzker?
It's not strictly about age, it's about whether or not the Pritzker should be awarded to someone that's only contributed a significant body of work since 1999. Look at all of the winners, their body of work vastly exceeds that of Alejandro.
i LOVE Archinect! here is an organization - Pritzker - fairly unnoticed by most media, Archinect drills the lady involved in the election process, who like any good cover-upper pretends Amelia's question is dumb after being asked twice! like the pope election - she says! .....my hero is Frank Lloyd Wright
Chris, my strangely long pause, if un-edited, was me being gobsmacked by her response to Amelia's question; hence my fucking up my question.
The line of questioning regarding AA's winning after being a jury member seems like it's missing the point. Why was he invited to the jury in the first place? C'mon, she's right, it's not "generous."
Her answers are pretty good all the way through. Especially about prize being about "body of built work" and balancing quality work with the extra x variable of meaning or purpose, which is the right balance.... Though in the future this question of social purpose should become more broad.
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