2019 NEUTRA AWARD FOR PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE:

Alejandro Aravena won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2016. Born in Santiago, Chile, he graduated from the Universidad Católica de Chile in 1992 and established Alejandro Aravena Architects in 1994. Since 2001, he has been leading ELEMENTAL, a “Do Tank” focusing on projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure, and transportation. ELEMENTAL has built work in Chile, the United States, Mexico, China and Switzerland. After the 2010 earthquake in Chile, ELEMENTAL worked on the reconstruction of the city of Constitucion, Chile. In addition, the firm’s work includes the "Siamese Towers" at the Universidad Católica, the Colegio Huelquen Montessori, the Casa para una Escultora (House for a Sculptor), art workshops on the Vitra campus at Weil am Rhein, and Villa en Ordos Inner Mongolia.

Aravena was the director and curator of the Architecture Section of the 2016 Venice Biennale. He was a member of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury from 2009 to 2015. In 2010, he was named International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He has been a Board Member of the Cities Program of the London School of Economics since 2011; Regional Advisory Board Member of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; Board Member of the Swiss Holcim Foundation since 2013; Foundational Member of the Chilean Public Policies Society; and Leader of the Helsinki Design Lab for SITRA, the Finnish Government Innovation Fund. He was one of the 100 personalities contributing to the Rio +20 Global Summit in 2012. Aravena was a Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Architectural Association in London, and London School of Economics. He has held the ELEMENTAL Copec Chair at Universidad Católica de Chile since 2006. Aravena is the author of Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (Architectural Facts, 1999), El Lugar de la Arquitectura (The Place in/of Architecture, 2002) and Material de Arquitectura (Architecture Matters, 2003). His work has been published in more than 50 countries.

Learn more at  http://www.elementalchile.cl/en.

Speakers

Alejandro Aravena
ELEMENTAL