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Pritzker Prize 2016 Winner News

Alejandro Aravena Architect: International Architecture Award

7 Apr 2016

Pritzker Prize Winner Ceremony

Alejandro Aravena of Chile receives the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize
2016 Announcement Video from The Pritzker Architecture Prize on Vimeo.

Pritzker Architecture Prize 2016 Ceremony

The formal award ceremony for what has come to be known internationally as architecture’s highest honor took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 4, 2016.

Pritzker Prize Ceremony in 2016

The United Nations Headquarters complex in New York, overlooking the East River, has been the official headquarters of the United Nations (UN) since its completion in 1952. The principal organs of the UN have their seats there, including the General Assembly and Security Council. While located in New York City, the complex is technically extraterritorial and is under the sole administration of the UN. United Nations Headquarters is notable for its history, architecture, gardens, outdoor sculptures, and artworks from around the world.

From the UN-commissioned film “A Workshop for Peace”: In the years after World War II, the founders of the UN sought to build a headquarters “as a symbol of hope that a union of nations can come together in one place to make peace.” Their goal was to design a headquarters that would express the vision of a future without war. Wallace K. Harrison (USA) was appointed chief architect with the title of Director of Planning. Assisting him was a Board of Design Consultants: Nikolai G. Bassov (Soviet Union); Gaston Brunfaut (Belgium); Ernest Cormier (Canada); Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier (France); Liang Seu-Cheng (China); Sven Markelius (Sweden); Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil); Sir Howard Robertson (United Kingdom); G. A. Soilleux (Australia); and Julio Vilamajo (Uruguay).

Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, this year’s Pritzker Prize winner, is releasing a number of his residential designs as an open-source resource to help tackle the global affordable housing crisis. Aravena’s firm, Elemental, has posted drawings for four of its low-cost “incremental” housing projects on its website for free download.

13 Jan 2016

Pritzker Architecture Prize 2016 Winner

Pritzker Prize Winner in 2016

Alejandro Aravena of Chile receives the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize

He practices architecture as an artful endeavor in private commissions and in designs for the public realm and epitomizes the revival of a more socially engaged architect.

Architect Alejandro Aravena:

Alejandro Aravena of Chile has been selected as the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, Tom Pritzker announced today. Mr. Pritzker is Chairman and President of The Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the prize. The formal award ceremony for what has come to be known internationally as architecture’s highest honor will be at United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 4, 2016.

Torres Siamesas, Santiago, Chile – Siamese Tower:

The 48-year-old Aravena is an architect based in Santiago, Chile.

He becomes the 41st laureate of the Pritzker Prize, the first Pritzker Laureate from Chile, and the fourth from Latin America, after Luis Barragán (1980), Oscar Niemeyer (1988), and Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006).

Siamese Tower in Chile:

Mr. Pritzker said, “The jury has selected an architect who deepens our understanding of what is truly great design. Alejandro Aravena has pioneered a collaborative practice that produces powerful works of architecture and also addresses key challenges of the 21st century. His built work gives economic opportunity to the less privileged, mitigates the effects of natural disasters, reduces energy consumption, and provides welcoming public space. Innovative and inspiring, he shows how architecture at its best can improve people’s lives.”

Aravena has completed remarkable buildings at the esteemed Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, including the UC Innovation Center – Anacleto Angelini (2014), the Siamese Towers (2005), Medical School (2004), School of Architecture (2004), and the Mathematics School (1999). These energy-efficient buildings respond to the local climate with innovative, efficient facades and floor plans and offer the users natural light and convivial meeting places.

Currently under construction in Shanghai, China, is an office building for healthcare company Novartis, with office spaces designed to accommodate different modes of work — individual, collective, formal and informal. In the United States, Aravena has built St. Edward’s University Dorms (2008) in Austin, Texas.

Quinta Monroy Housing, Iquique, Chile – 2005:

Since 2001, Aravena has been executive director of the Santiago-based ELEMENTAL, a “Do Tank,” as opposed to a think tank, whose partners are Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó, and Diego Torres. ELEMENTAL focuses on projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure, and transportation. ELEMENTAL has designed more than 2,500 units of low-cost social housing.

A hallmark of the firm is a participatory design process in which the architects work closely with the public and end users. ELEMENTAL is also known for designing social housing that they call “half of a good house,” in which the design leaves space for the residents to complete their houses themselves and thus raise themselves up to a middle-class standard of living. This innovative approach, called “incremental housing,” allows for social housing to be built on more expensive land closer to economic opportunity and gives residents a sense of accomplishment and personal investment.

Escuela de Medicina UC, Chile:

In response to being named the 2016 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Mr. Aravena emailed: “Looking backwards, we feel deeply thankful. 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. Looking into the future we anticipate Freedom! The prestige, the reach, the gravitas of the prize is such that we hope to use its momentum to explore new territories, face new challenges, and walk into new fields of action. After such a peak, the path is unwritten. So our plan is not to have a plan, face the uncertain, be open to the unexpected. Finally, looking at the present, we are just overwhelmed, ecstatic, happy. It’s time to celebrate and share our joy with as many people as possible.”

Centro de Innovación UC Anacleto Angelini, Santiago, Chile:

The 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury Citation states in part, “Alejandro Aravena has delivered works of architectural excellence in the fields of private, public and educational commissions both in his home country and abroad…. He has undertaken projects of different scales from single-family houses to large institutional buildings…. He understands materials and construction, but also the importance of poetry and the power of architecture to communicate on many levels.”

Centro de Innovación UC Anacleto Angelini, Santiago, Chile:
UC INNOVATION CENTER – ANACLETO ANGELINI from elementalchile on Vimeo

Alejandro Aravena is the Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016, titled “Reporting from the Front,” set to open in May 2016.

Venice Biennale 2016 Director of Architecture, Alejandro Aravena

The Chair of the Jury of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Lord Peter Palumbo, said that, as the jury visited Aravena’s projects, they felt a sense of wonder and revelation; they understood that his is an innovative way of creating great architecture, with the best yet to come. Referencing John Keats’ poem “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” Lord Palumbo said, “Stout Cortez stared at the Pacific with eagle eyes, whilst the Pritzker jury felt like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken: And although not silent upon a peak in Darien, they looked at each other with a wild surmise, captivated, stunned, and overwhelmed by the work of Alejandro Aravena and the promise of a golden future.”

Centro de Innovación UC Anacleto Angelini, Santiago, Chile:

Images: copyright and courtesy of ELEMENTAL

Pritzker Prize information from The Pritzker Prize

Architect Alejandro Aravena

picture from BIDA

Mar 1, 2017
RCR ArquitectesReceive the 2017 Pritzker Architecture Prize

Pritzker Architecture Prize 2017 Laureates

Pritzker Prize 2015 – Frei Otto selected as the 2015 Pritzker Architecture Prize

Alejandro Aravena (Elemental) Joint Project : Ruta del Peregrino, Jalisco

Location:Chicago, USA ‘

Pritzker Architecture Prize Information

Pritzker Prize Architects : main page with current winner information

Pritzker Prize

Pritzker Architecture Prize Winner 2014
2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate : Shigeru Ban architect

A key building by this architect: Centre Pompidou-Metz, France:

photo : Roland Halbe

Shigeru Ban, a Tokyo-born, 56-year-old architect with offices in Tokyo, Paris and New York, is rare in the field of architecture. He designs elegant, innovative work for private clients, and uses the same inventive and resourceful design approach for his extensive humanitarian efforts. For twenty years Ban has traveled to sites of natural and man-made disasters around the world, to work with local citizens, volunteers and students, to design and construct simple, dignified, low-cost, recyclable shelters and community buildings for the disaster victims.

Pritzker Architecture Prize Winner 2013
2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate : Toyo Ito architect

Toyo Ito, a 71 year old architect whose architectural practice is based in Tokyo, Japan, will be the recipient of the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize, it was announced today by Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the prize. Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to become a Pritzker Laureate — the first five being the late Kenzo Tange in 1987, Fumihiko Maki in 1993, Tadao Ando in 1995, and the team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 2010.

Toyo Ito architect:

photo courtesy of Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects