Alejandro Aravena Pritzker Prize Laureate 2016

Will 2016 see the birth of a new starchitect? This is a question arising because Alejandro Aravena, the Chilean architect named in July 2015 as director of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice 2016, yesterday has been declared the Pritzker Prize Laureate 2016, an award often defined as the Nobel prize of architecture.
In fact Aravena is quite far from the starchitect image and actually represents the renaissance of a socially committed architect. It's not by chance that the jury has underlined that  "Alejandro Aravena is 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". His firm Elemental covers a wide range of projects, from a sustainable reconstruction plan for Constitución, the Chilean city devastated by an earthquake and ensuing tsunami in 2010, to delivering 2,500 units of housing in urban slums.

The ceremony will take place in New York in the United Nations Headquarter Complex, on 4 April 2016. In the meantime there is a growing interest in the Chilean architect and also regarding the 15th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice from 28 May to 27 November 2016.

(Agnese Bifulco)

All images are copyright and courtesy of ELEMENTAL

www.pritzkerprize.com
www.elementalchile.cl

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