Social architecture—architecture that looks good, is good for the community, and benefits those that need decent, affordable housing most—is, sadly, an all-too-elusive trifecta. But Alejandro Aravena of Chile, the just-announced 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, admirably designs buildings with all of those things in mind.
As Aravena explained in his fascinating October 2014 TED talk about planning for future cities and places of work, “The more complex the problem the more the need for simplicity.” The needs of economically disadvantaged people moving to the cities for example, led Aravena and his firm, Elemental, to design half-houses that could increase on size if the residents within could afford that. Of his many other buildings, he also designed an office with an inner open atrium, so workers could see each other working, with astonishing open spaces carved into the buildings to act as collective open platforms.
Aravena, who says he is inspired in his design by favelas and slums themselves, says that 5 billion people could be living in urban areas by 2030, with—according to present patterns—2 billion of those living below the poverty line. The urban enviroments we plan now must be built with this in mind: It’s not that buildings should be sustainable, he says, they must be.
Photo by Cristobal Palma
San Joaquín Campus, Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago, Chile.
Photo by Cristobal Palma
San Joaquín Campus, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Photo by Nina Vidic
Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago, Chile
Photos by Tadeuz Jalocha
Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago, Chile
Roland Halbe
Iquique, Chile
Photos by Cristobal Palma
Austin, Texas, USA
Photos by Cristobal Palma
Jan Michalski Foundation Montricher, Switzerland
Photos by +2 Architectes
