The year certainly holds great promises for the Curator of the 2016 Venice
Biennial, Alejandro Aravena who has also been announced as the 2016 winner of
architecture’s most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize.
In his citation by the Pritzker Prize jury, the 48 year old native of Santiago,
Chile, is described as leading a new generation of architects that has a
holistic understanding of the built environment and has clearly demonstrated
the ability to connect social responsibility, economic demands, design of human
habitat and the city. And in doing so, has meaningfully expanded the role of
the architect.
Going further, the jury believes that what sets Aravena apart is his
commitment to social housing. As the Director of ELEMENTAL, a company co-owned
by three groups: the private architects who work for the company, a Catholic
university, and Chile's largest oil company, Aravena and his collaborators have consistently realised works
with clear social goals. Calling the
company a ‘Do Thank” as opposed to the norm of a Think Tank, they have built
more than 2500 units using imaginative, flexible and direct architectural
solutions for low cost social housing.
The company achieved worldwide renown in 2004 for its Quinta Monroy
development in Iquique, Chile. Utilizing a hitherto unknown ‘Half a House’
concept, only the barest most important structural elements such as the
foundation and building frames were constructed. Upon possession, home owners completed
their respective units to suit their needs within their financial capabilities
at their own pace.
The Pritzker jury also opined that the role of the architect is now
being challenged to serve greater social and humanitarian needs and Alejandro
Aravena (a Pritzker juror from 2009 to 2015) has clearly, generously and fully
responded to this challenge.
In what seems to be a new trend, the selection of Aravena marks the second
time that the Pritzker jury has picked socially conscious/humanitarian architecture
over statement architecture. Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect best known for
his work with cardboard paper tubing in disaster affected areas of the world
was selected as the 2014 Pritzker Prize laureate.
Coincidentally, Aravena would be
awarded the prize on April 4 at the UN building designed by Oscar Niemeyer, a fellow South
American and 1988 Pritzker Laureate. Talk about the awards coming full circle!
Photocredit: Google Images.
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