The 53rd birthday is being celebrated today by Alejandro Aravena, Chilean architect, founder of the Elemental studio, and Pritzker Prize winner involved in the construction of social housing. To mark the occasion, we recall some of the architect's projects and recommend his TED Talks appearance.
© taller210
Quinta Monroy social housing development,
Iquique, Chile, 2004
The Elemental studio is known for itsincremental housing, which involves the office designing half of the house (structure, roof and kitchenand sanitary riser). The other half of it, according to their own needs, is created by the residents themselves.
© Design of the Architect
Siamese Towers, an officeand teaching building,
Campus of the Chilean Catholic University,
Santiago, Chile, 2005
Aravena has designed many buildings for his Alma Mater, the Catholic University of Santiago - the Siamese Towers office and didacticbuilding, the Innovation Center, and the Faculties of Architecture, Medicine and Mathematics.
©️ Baltazar Acuña Cs.
Bicentennial Children's Park playground complex, Santiago, Chile, 2012
The four-hectare playground is located on a hillside, which was used to deploy more than sixty slides. The park also has houses, swings, obstacle courses and fountains for the little ones to enjoy.
© wenu.ka.mapu
Casa Ocho Quebradas, Los Vilos, Chile, 2013
Tying into the hillside above the Pacific Ocean, the austere, monolithic masses of the Los Vilos weekend house's concrete structure are quintessential Aravena style. Composed of three simple blocks, the house houses bedrooms and bathrooms (in a vertical block), the main living space (in the lower horizontal section) and a chimney (located in a sloping block).
© Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma
Centro de Innovación Tecnológica Anacleto Angelini, campus of the Chilean Catholic University, Santiago, Chile, 2014.
Another university building of Aravena's design looks from the outside like an inaccessible crude monolithic block. Inside, however, the Innovation Center surprises - filled with glass and cozy wood, the interior is illuminated by sunlight streaming in through a giant skylight.
© piece of design
Venice Architecture Biennale, 2016
Alejandro Aravena curated the 15th Venice International Architecture Exhibition, whose slogan was "Reporting from the front." The biennial was to show the works of people who are looking for new fields of action, seeking to confront problems such as exclusion, inequality, lack of housing and pollution, among others.
© Philipp Sieber
