Gallery: Get to Know Alejandro Aravena, the Pritzker Prize Winner Who Builds Half-Finished Homes
Nina Vidic01Alejandro-Aravena-Innovation-Center-02-0
The UC Innovation Center, on the Universidad Católica de Chile’s campus, is the building you’re likely to see first if you Google Aravena.
James Florio02Alejandro-Aravena-Innovation-Center-08-0
The design competition for the building asked for “the right environment for knowledge creation” and “interaction among people.” This glass atrium allows for everyone inside to see across other floors and into other offices, promoting a feeling of openness.
Iwan Baan03Alejandro-Aravena-Las-Cruces-Pilgrim-Lookout-Point-01
Las Cruces Pilgrim Lookout Point, in Jalisco, Mexico, is like a rest stop, but not for cars. It's meant to look like a "hollowed stone" that's part of the environment.
Cristobal Palma04CP.ac-7
The Siamese Towers, from 2005, are at the San Joaquín Campus, at the Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago, Chile. The classrooms and offices are built out of a shaded building within a glass building—a design meant to prevent the building from overheating, due to too much sun exposure.
Roland Halbe05RH1385-12
Another of Aravena's designs at the Universidad Católica de Chile, in Santiago, is this medical school. It was finished in 2004.
Ramiro Ramirez06Alejandro-Aravena-Monterrey-Housing-02
The Monterrey Housing complex in Monterrey, Mexico, is built according to Aravena's "incremental design" principles. Aravena invested more in acquiring the land and building the units; as residents move in they can add to the homes and renovate, according to their budget.
Ramiro Ramirez07Alejandro-Aravena-Monterrey-Housing-01
At the 70-home building, each dwelling had to be developed for $20,000. Aravena and his team built the difficult parts of the home—the bathroom, kitchen, stairs, and walls—and left the rest to the future owner.
Elemental08Alejandro-Aravena-Ocho-Quebradas-House-01
A still-in-the-works idea for a vacation home, in Los Vilos, Chile.
Felipe Diaz09Alejandro-Aravena-Pres-Constitucion-SeaSide-Promenade-02
As part of the Post-Tsunami Sustainable Reconstruction Plan (PRES) of Constitución, Aravena built the Constitución Seaside Promenade as a coastal lookout point.
Cristobal Palma10Alejandro-Aravena-Quinta-Monroy-Housing-03-0
At the Quinta Monroy Housing project Aravena worked on in Iquique, Chile, in 2004, the homes are deliberately left unfinished.
Ludovic Dusuzean (top) and Tadeuz Jalocha (bottom)11Alejandro-Aravena-Quinta-Monroy-Housing-04-0
When you do that, he argues, it gives the residents a chance to fill in the gaps, creating culturally appropriate homes that actually feel like homes, and not government-issued housing.
Cristobal Palma12CP4
Dorms at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.
Cristobal Palma13CP2
The building features a deliberately unusual and varied perimeter, in order to increase the amount of natural light that reaches all of the 300 rooms.
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Another of Aravena's "incremental" designs is the residential complex in Constitucion, Chile, after the 2010 earthquake.
Elemental15Alejandro-Aravena-Villa-Verde-House-01
These units were literally one-half of a house—the left side of the house, to be exact—that then later came to completion through the new resident’s own investments.
+2 Architectes16Alejandro-Aravena-Writers-Cabin-01
Completed last year, the Writer’s Cabin at the Jan Michalski Foundation in Montricher, Switzerland, is a writer's residence meant to inspire creativity.
