The Art Mill Museum project represents 21-year-old ELEMENTAL’s first-ever museum commission and will be joined by designs from Herzog & de Meuron and OMA upon its completion towards the end of the decade. Aravena said he wants to “create something reversible,” looking to the existing silo structures as “clues for how to proceed” that can ultimately be altered by subsequent generations of designers, adding, “What works today for a museum might not work in the future.”

“We came in with no bias about museum architecture, and no real knowledge of the region,” he added (although he mentioned his experience designing with seismic and climatic considerations in his native country as informing the nearly one-million-square-foot design.)

Revisit Archinect's 2019 interview: The War on Cliché; A Conversation with Alejandro Aravena

“Much as we continue to pursue projects around housing and community and slum upgrading, we also like to tackle these big projects, to keep our design tools sharpened,” the 2016 Pritzker winner told The Art Newspaper finally, speaking of the desire to pivot to cultural commissions. “We are living in an urban era. Many people migrate to live in cities. We need to support them, to house them but also give them opportunities for learning and leisure. I believe cities are measured by what you can do in them for free. That is quality of life.”