Alejandro Aravena is perhaps the most prominent representative of a new generation of socially active architects: he and his ELEMENTAL bureau gained worldwide fame in the mid-2000s, when they developed a residential area on the site of the Quinta Monroy slum in the Chilean city of Iquique. The state gave residents a subsidy that was insufficient for the construction of a full-fledged house, but this amount was enough for half of the construction. Aravena proposed to build exactly half of it - and the second was to be completed by the residents themselves and according to a convenient schedule themselves. This scheme turned out to be more than successful, to date, ELEMENTAL has designed about 2,500 apartments and single-family houses of this type in different parts of Latin America. The project for Quinta Monroy demonstrated not just a social, but a practical, even pragmatic orientation of Aravena's work - in contrast to many "humanitarian" architectural ideas that serve only as self-promotion of their authors and rarely move beyond the pilot project - and this is at best. This is the kind of socio-architectural practice that will be the focus of this year's Venice Biennale, curated by Alejandro Aravena. Its theme is "Reporting from the Front".
Aravena sees architecture as a tool for solving key problems - first of all, poverty, which translates into urban growth due to the expansion of slums (primarily in the global South - where the fastest growing megacities of the world are located). But, unlike the modernists who considered themselves omnipotent, who planned to make the world's population happy without being particularly interested in their opinion, Aravena bases her approach on close contact with future “users” of their buildings, which is especially important if the project involves “self-construction”, as in Quinta -Monroy. ELEMENTAL's largest project, the reconstruction after the 2010 earthquake and tsunami in the Chilean city of Constitucion, involves the ongoing involvement of local residents. Also among the humanitarian work of the Aravena bureau are master plans, parks, cultural centers.
But Aravena's portfolio is not limited to social projects: for all his protest against the quality-reducing austerity in this area, there often have to be content with minimal funds, and there may be little “architecture” there. As a gifted architect outside of such restrictions, he showed himself back in the 1990s: then he began to build buildings for the Catholic University in Santiago, which he is building to this day. Commercial projects such as the Novartis office building under construction in Shanghai allow him to fund humanitarian endeavors such as the restoration of the Constitution.
In the awarding of the Aravena Prize, one can see the Pritzker jury flirting with public opinion: after being awarded for "humanitarian work" in 2014, Shigeru Bana, the award seemed to turn "left", from successfully working in the neoliberal system of "stars" turned to the heroes of "social" discourse, caring about the most needy part of the population. In 2014, this provoked a protest: not everyone was ready to judge architecture solely on the basis of an ethical component, forgetting about aesthetics and creativity in principle. Therefore, this time in the jury's statement, considerable emphasis is placed on the university buildings, office buildings and spectacular pavilions of Aravena, where, undoubtedly, his great talent manifests itself.
At the same time, this is a safe solution: Aravena has long been integrated into the architectural establishment, taught at the Harvard School of Design for five years, constantly participates in exhibitions and lectures around the world, receives prestigious awards, from 2009 to 2015 he was on the jury "Pritzker" (apparently, left its composition only to be awarded himself), collaborates with Vitra, now he headed the next Venice Biennale. The intellectual clarity of his speeches and texts, the careful thoughtfulness and originality of his arguments always make a great impression. The interest in the Chilean school of architecture and constant publications on the websites PlataformaArquitectura.cl and Archdaily.com, founded by his compatriots, greatly helped to promote it. Compared to many other architecture activists, Aravena is "photogenic" in all respects and plays by the rules.
However, this willingness to compromise allows Alejandro Aravena to do more than if he closed himself in radicalism; at a minimum, it provides him with a platform - and with fame new opportunities, including financial ones, come to implement the plan. Therefore, in response to the news of his award, he stressed that the prestige of the award would help him and ELEMENTAL to develop new territories, give them greater freedom. However, Aravena began with the fact that no achievement is individual, and architecture is a collective discipline, never once using the pronoun "I", only "we". For the first time, the collection of illustrations “about the laureate” offered to journalists by Pritzker’s PR specialists included photographs of his employees in the bureau's interiors, both glamorous and “leftists” in the era of celebrity cult - an unexpected display of modesty.
The awards ceremony will take place on 4 April 2016 at the UN headquarters in New York.
