Alejandro Aravena's Santiago firm ELEMENTAL had the winning concept for the Qatar Art Mill Design Competition. Launched by Qatar Museums in 2015, the three-stage competition sought the architect who will convert an approximately 1 million square-foot flour mill into a new waterfront art museum for Doha Bay...“The [winning] concept design was praised by the international jury as ‘a serene artwork...” — Bustler
Elemental Art Mill Concept Design. Image © Qatar Museums and Malcolm Reading Consultants.Chosen from eight top-notch finalists, Elemental was inspired by the iconic “rhythmic monumental grain silos” of the original Flour Mills that formerly occupied the site.Find out more on Bustler. View full entry
From winning the Pritzker to curating the Venice Biennale, the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena had a pretty good 2016. Apparently, he’s still on a roll: Aravena has just been awarded the 2017 Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Design. Awarded each year to people or organizations for... View full entry
From their studios, ateliers, film sets and kitchens — and even the White House — these are the people whose inventive spirits shaped the conversation this year. — nytimes.com
It certainly was an eventful career year for Alejandro Aravena (Pritzker Prize, Venice Biennale, et al.), and the ambitious Chilean's cultural footprint can be traced throughout a handful of our Archinect 2016 Year In Review posts:The top prize-winning architects of 2016How starchitect culture... View full entry
"In most cities in Latin America, most of the building over last 50 years—depending on the city—40, 50, 60, 70 percent has been through incremental construction.” [...]
The majority of Aravena’s social housing work has also rested on the unique conditions and high level of investment from Chile’s social housing program. [...]
Isn’t asking the poor to shoulder more of the housing burden an inherently unfair proposition?
— newrepublic.com
More discussion of Aravena's practice and impact can be found here:News coverage of Aravena's 2016 Venice Biennale"Making A Pritzker Laureate" – Martha Thorne, executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, gives us an inside look at the prestigious award, on Archinect Sessions #48Watch... View full entry
May 26, 2016Aravena’s Biennale for architecture to give a damn might imply a specific kind of project, but, after one day on the ground, it is clear that there is no one way for it to respond. For one thing, there is a truly incomprehensible quantity of material to cover. The volume alone speaks... View full entry
May 25, 2016:At La Biennale Architettura di Venezia, architecture packages itself for a global forum. It is a distinct occasion through which the world’s constructs and place-makings converge in a single microcosm. Against the backdrop of a sinking city, designers and works tapped to represent... View full entry
Are you stuck at home feeling Biennale-FOMO while everyone else is sipping Campari and sodas in the Arsenale? Assuage it by watching a live tour of the Biennale conducted by Alejandro Aravena tomorrow.The stream will begin on May 26th at noon (Venice time, assumedly). You can watch it on the T... View full entry
Aravena polished off his beer when a stranger sidled up to the table. It happens all the time now. Drivers in passing cars stop him in the street. Shop clerks, politicians, long-lost acquaintances and schoolteachers ask for selfies with him. They all say the same thing. “Thank you,” the stranger said to Aravena, who smiled and posed arm in arm with the man for a picture. Thank you — as if the Pritzker prize...had been awarded on behalf of everybody in Chile. — nytimes.com
Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for the New York Times, profiles Alejandro Aravena's projects in his native Chile, on the cusp of this year's Venice Biennale opening (which Aravena is also directing). The profile largely focuses on Aravena's social practice, and its attempts at... View full entry
ICYMI Amelia Taylor-Hochberg published a 3 part interview with Coy Howard, by students in John Southern's “Architectural Media and Publishing” Cultural Studies seminar at SCI-Arc. Ewa Lenart was impressed "Great Work and greatly inspiring teacher!" Plus, Nicholas Korody explored... View full entry
The suspicion is that the Pritzker judges haven’t changed all that much, and are backing an iconic-humanitarian architect, a flipside to the starchitects they previously promoted rather than a radical alternative [...]
Some scepticism is in order, as to whether the Pritzker committee have suddenly become experts in the vastly complicated business of humanitarian architecture and whether there might be a large dose of gesture and symbolism in their actions.
— theguardian.com
Related on Archinect.:Why is the Pritzker such a big deal?Race for the Prize – Aravena's Pritzker ceremony, the scourge of unpaid internships and more on Archinect Sessions #59Inside Aravena's open source plans for low-cost yet upgradable housing"It’s going to be about gratitude and it’s... View full entry
Last week we witnessed the loss of Dame Zaha Hadid, one of architecture's most formidable and prolific talents. We'll be devoting a later podcast episode to remembering her and honoring her work. Until then, we'll continue catching you up with the most significant architecture news from the past... View full entry
After Alejandro Aravena accepted the Pritzker Prize yesterday, his firm Elemental released four open source plans for low income housing that, according to the firm's website, balance the constraints of "low-rise high density, without overcrowding, with possibility of expansion (from social... View full entry
Yesterday, the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena was awarded the Pritzker Prize during a ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Known for his socially-engaged practice, Elemental, Aravena will also serve as the curator for this summer's Venice Biennale.“The work of this... View full entry
Will Galloway profiles the work of Samira Boon who in in recent years "has turned to an interesting series of research-led design projects focusing on making 3D fabrics" and immersed herself "in research on structural textiles". Plus, Nicholas Korody rounded up the Critical Reaction to the... View full entry
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... View full entry
