Alejandro Aravena graduated in Architecture from Universidad Católica de Chile in 1992. As a student, he participated in the Venice Prize at the 5th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia in 1991. In 1993, he studied History and Theory at IUAV and engraving at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. He established Alejandro Aravena Architects in 1994. From 2000 to 2005, he was a professor at Harvard University, where he began laying the groundwork for ELEMENTAL.
ELEMENTAL, a Do Tank founded in 2001 and led by Alejandro Aravena, includes Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó, and Diego Torres. The studio focuses on projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure, and transportation.
Alejandro Aravena served on the Pritzker Prize Jury from 2009 to 2015. He was named an Honorary RIBA International Fellow in 2009 and became a Board Member of the Cities Program at the London School of Economics in 2011. He also serves as a Regional Advisory Board Member of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and is a Board Member of the Swiss Holcim Foundation. Additionally, he is a Foundational Member of the Chilean Public Policies Society. He led the Helsinki Design Lab for SITRA, the Finnish Government Innovation Fund, designing a national strategy towards carbon neutrality.
Aravena was one of the 100 personalities contributing to the Rio+20 Global Summit in 2012 and has participated in conferences worldwide, including a Pritzker Laureate’s Conversation at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 2016 and a TED Global talk in Rio de Janeiro in 2014 titled “My Architectural Philosophy? Bring the Community into the Process.”
He has authored several books, including Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (Architectural Facts, Santiago, 1999), El Lugar de la Arquitectura (The Place in/of Architecture, Santiago, 2002), and Material de Arquitectura (Architecture Matters, Santiago, 2003). Electa published the monograph Alejandro Aravena; progettare e costruire (Milan, 2007), and Toto published Alejandro Aravena; the Forces in Architecture (Tokyo, 2011). ELEMENTAL’s work has been documented in ELEMENTAL: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual (Hatje-Cantz, 2011) and ELEMENTAL (Phaidon, 2018).
ELEMENTAL’s work has been exhibited at various venues, including MoMA (Small Scale, Big Change, 2010) and the Venice Architecture Biennale (2008, 2012, 2018). The firm curated the XV Venice Biennale in 2016. A solo retrospective opened at the Louisiana Art Museum in Denmark in October 2018. ELEMENTAL’s work is also part of the permanent collection at the Centre Pompidou.
Alejandro Aravena graduated in Architecture from Universidad Católica de Chile in 1992. As a student, he participated in the Venice Prize at the 5th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia in 1991. In 1993, he studied History and Theory at IUAV and engraving at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. He established Alejandro Aravena Architects in 1994. From 2000 to 2005, he was a professor at Harvard University, where he began laying the groundwork for ELEMENTAL.
ELEMENTAL, a Do Tank founded in 2001 and led by Alejandro Aravena, includes Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó, and Diego Torres. The studio focuses on projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure, and transportation.
Alejandro Aravena served on the Pritzker Prize Jury from 2009 to 2015. He was named an Honorary RIBA International Fellow in 2009 and became a Board Member of the Cities Program at the London School of Economics in 2011. He also serves as a Regional Advisory Board Member of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and is a Board Member of the Swiss Holcim Foundation. Additionally, he is a Foundational Member of the Chilean Public Policies Society. He led the Helsinki Design Lab for SITRA, the Finnish Government Innovation Fund, designing a national strategy towards carbon neutrality.
Aravena was one of the 100 personalities contributing to the Rio+20 Global Summit in 2012 and has participated in conferences worldwide, including a Pritzker Laureate’s Conversation at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 2016 and a TED Global talk in Rio de Janeiro in 2014 titled “My Architectural Philosophy? Bring the Community into the Process.”
He has authored several books, including Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (Architectural Facts, Santiago, 1999), El Lugar de la Arquitectura (The Place in/of Architecture, Santiago, 2002), and Material de Arquitectura (Architecture Matters, Santiago, 2003). Electa published the monograph Alejandro Aravena; progettare e costruire (Milan, 2007), and Toto published Alejandro Aravena; the Forces in Architecture (Tokyo, 2011). ELEMENTAL’s work has been documented in ELEMENTAL: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual (Hatje-Cantz, 2011) and ELEMENTAL (Phaidon, 2018).
ELEMENTAL’s work has been exhibited at various venues, including MoMA (Small Scale, Big Change, 2010) and the Venice Architecture Biennale (2008, 2012, 2018). The firm curated the XV Venice Biennale in 2016. A solo retrospective opened at the Louisiana Art Museum in Denmark in October 2018. ELEMENTAL’s work is also part of the permanent collection at the Centre Pompidou.
