As head of the Santiago-based firm Elemental and director of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, Alejandro Aravena has done more in championing the completion of unfinished houses. He is the first Chilean to be awarded the Pritzker laureate.
"His built work gives economic opportunity to the less privileged, mitigates the effects of natural disasters, reduces energy consumption, and provides welcoming public space," said Tom Pritzker, chairman and president of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the prize.
The Chilean architect, 48, told the New York Times that his firm pioneered what it calls "incremental housing," where the firm designs "half of a good house" and then leaves the residents to complete the houses by themselves, according to a press release from the Hyatt Foundation. He was also tasked to create a new master plan for the city of Constitución in Chile after it was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in 2010, according to the report of The Real Deal news.
Aravena's architectural firm, Elemental, has designed many buildings for the Universidad Católica de Chile, including a medical school, a renovation of the architecture school, a mathematics school, the Siamese Towers, and the U.C. Innovation Center.
The 2014 winner of the Pritzker Prize was Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect who was also recognized for his role in constructing low-cost housing.
According to a Curbed report, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena is the third from South America, and the fourth from Latin America, to have won the 2016 Pritzker Prize. Aravena is best-known for building a housing complex at a cost of $7,500 per unit, and is a supporter of "the rigorous use of common sense" to build sustainable, affordable and resilient homes.
Among the projects of Aravena's high-quality portfolio is the 2012 Bicentennial Park in Santiago, Chile which features a hillside full of slides, a fountain made of concrete bubbles, and a jungle gym.
Sponsoring the $100,000 Pritzker Prize is Tom Pritzker, president and chairman of the Hyatt Foundation.
