Alejandro Gastón Aravena Mori

Elemental "The role of the architect is now being challenged to serve greater social and humanitarian needs, and Alejandro Aravena has clearly, generously and fully responded to this challenge." —Pritzker Prize Jury Featuring over 300 illustrations, this spectacular, visually rich monograph on one of the most visionary architecture firms of the twenty-first century will blow you away. Led by 2016 Pritzker Prize-winner Alejandro Aravena, Elemental epitomises a new generation of pioneering, socially engaged architects working on both large and small scales across Chile, the United States, Mexico, Switzerland and China.

Alejandro Aravena
Alejandro Aravena in 2015
Born	Alejandro Gastón Aravena Mori 22 June 1967 (age 51) Santiago, Chile
Nationality	Chilean
Alma mater	Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Occupation	Architect
Awards	Pritzker Architecture Prize (2016)
Practice	Elemental S.A.

Alejandro Gastón Aravena Mori (born 22 June 1967) is a Chilean architect from Santiago. He is executive director of the firm Elemental S.A. He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2016.^[1] He was the director and curator of the Architecture Section of the 2016 Venice Biennale.^[2]

Contents

• 1Education and career
• 2Works
• 3Awards
• 4References
• 5External links

Education and career[edit]

Aravena graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1992 and established Alejandro Aravena Architects in 1994.^[3] Aravena was a visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design from 2000–05 and is the Elemental-Copec Professor at Universidad Católica de Chile. Aravena co-authored Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (ARQ, 1999), El Lugar de la Arquitectura (ARQ, 2002) and the monograph Elemental: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual (Hatje-Cantz, 201).^[4] He was a member of the Pritzker Prize Jury from 2009 to 2015, and is an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.^[3]

In 2006, he became the executive director of ELEMENTAL,^[5] a for profit company with social interest.

In July 2015, Aravena was named Director of the Architecture Section of the Venice Biennale, with the responsibility for curating the 15th International Architecture Exhibition to be held in Venice in 2016.^[6]

Works[edit]

"Siamese Towers" at the Catholic University of Chile

Aravena designed the "Siamese Towers", a workshop building at the school of architecture and faculty buildings at the Universidad Católica. He designed the Colegio Huelquen Montessori; the Casa para una Escultora (House for a Sculptor); Casa en el lago Pirehueico (House on Lake Pirehueico); Hunt, Le Mans and Johnson residential halls of St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas; art workshops on the Vitra campus at Weil am Rhein; Villa en Ordos Inner Mongolia (Villa in Ordos Inner Mongolia) and projects for the Elemental initiative. He also designed a children's playground at the Metropolitan Park of Santiago.^[3]

Awards