WASHINGTON, July 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/
-- Internationally acclaimed architect Alejandro Aravena, whose rise to prominence
stemmed from his ability to synthesize design challenges into
solutions that channel people's capacity to create vibrant
communities, has been named the 2019 recipient of the Urban
Land Institute's (ULI) J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban
Development.
The Nichols Prize honors the legacy of Kansas City, Missouri, developer J.C.
Nichols, a founding ULI member
considered to be one of America's most creative entrepreneurs in
land use during the first half of the 20th century. Aravena, a
lifelong resident of Chile, is the
first Latin American to be awarded the prize, which recognizes an
individual who has made a distinguished contribution to community
building globally, who has established visionary standards of
excellence in the land use and development field, and whose
commitment to creating the highest quality built environment has
led to the betterment of society. He will be honored as the
20th Nichols laureate
and will be a featured speaker at ULI's 2019 Fall Meeting, which
will be held September 18-21 in
Washington, D.C.
Aravena, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2016, is the
founder of ELEMENTAL, a Santiago-based architecture firm at which he
is a co-partner with Gonzalo
Arteaga, Juan Cerda,
Victor Oddo and Diego Torres. ELEMENTAL, which he refers
to as a "Do Tank," has designed extraordinary buildings and
places around the world, including several environmentally
innovative spaces at the Universidad Catolica de Chile; flexible office space in Shanghai; dormitory space at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas; the Jan Michalski Foundation's
writers residences in Montricher, Switzerland; the Art Mill cultural center in
Doha, Qatar; and a new development
at the Energias de Portugal
headquarters site in Lisbon,
Portugal.
Aravena and his firm are equally renowned for projects of public
interest and social impact, including affordable housing, public
space, infrastructure and transportation. Through this work,
Aravena focuses on overcoming limited resources with synthesized
designs that address major urban challenges affecting people's
quality of life. "When we create a design proposal, we factor in
all the dimensions at the same time, and what we are designing
addresses all the forces – economic, political, social,
environmental, even aesthetical – that inform a building or place,"
Aravena said.
One example of this approach is the incremental housing designed
by ELEMENTAL for residents of the Chilean city of Constitucion
following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2010. Incremental
housing involves providing the basic structure of the dwelling
(which Aravena refers to as "half of a good house, instead of a
small one,") leaving the remainder to be completed by residents,
allowing them to customize their homes and instilling in residents
a sense of pride and accomplishment. This approach, which proved
highly successful in Constitucion, was deemed by ELEMENTAL to be
the most cost-efficient way to quickly house thousands of people in
need of a place to live. And while it was a response for residents
displaced by a catastrophe, it is an approach Aravena believes
could be replicated to increase the affordable housing stock in
other cities.
ULI Trustee and Nichols Prize Jury Chairman Michael Spies, senior managing director of
Tishman Speyer in New York City, noted that the selection of
Aravena as the Nichols laureate
"continues a tradition of citing people who have big, bold ideas.
His approach to architecture is one of really wanting to understand
who will be using a space or affected by a space, and how the space
will fit within the constellation of activities around it," Spies
said. "From the start of a project, he focuses on absorbing all the
dynamics, circumstances and challenges that could be affected by
that physical form, so its impact will be as broadly beneficial as
possible."
ELEMENTAL's holistic approach is one that was advocated by J.C.
Nichols, who wrote in 1919, "An
intelligent city plan thinks impartially for all parts of the city
at the same time, and does not forget the greater needs of tomorrow
in the press of today. It is simply good, practical, hard sense."
This statement still holds true 100 years later, says Aravena,
noting that every aspect of his work – and his belief in the
resourcefulness of people as a solution to urban challenges – is
about using common sense.
"Too often in the built environment, what dominates is the
commonplace. Let's exchange the commonplace for common sense,"
Aravena said. "If we are rigorous and bold in pursuing that, we may
have a chance to intelligently plan the built environment for the
generations to come."
In addition to Jury Chairman Michael
Spies, other 2019 Nichols Prize jury members were ULI
Trustee Jodie W. McLean, chief
executive officer of EDENS in Washington,
D.C.; ULI Trustee Leslie Woo,
chief executive officer of Metrolinx in Toronto; ULI Trustee A. Eugene Kohn, founder and chairman, KPF,
New York City; and Maurice Cox, director, City of Detroit
Department of Planning and Development.
"The main contribution architecture makes to the built
environment is what it inspires in human behavior," McLean said.
"One of Alejandro's greatest accomplishments is the process
in which he's connected architecture and working with communities,
taking care to include people's ideas on how to make a better
environment to improve all parts of the community. He doesn't just
draw solutions, he strives (for his work) to be part of the
solution."
"The selection of Alejandro represents the notion that
communities of the future require collaboration to move forward,"
Woo said. "He exemplifies the importance of working across the
public, private and not-for-profit sectors, different levels of
government, and all layers of the community, as well as the
importance of understanding the connection between the built
environment and the natural environment. He represents the
integrator, which (is a role) our industry very much needs."
Aravena was the director of the Venice Architecture Biennale
2016, and a speaker at the TEDGlobal conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2014. He served on
the Pritzker Architecture Prize jury from 2009-2015. In 2010,
Aravena was named an International Fellow by the Royal Institute of
British Architects, and he was also named as one of the 26 creative
geniuses of 2016 by the New York
Times.
He has served as a board member of the Cities Program of the
London School of Economics since 2011.
In addition, he is a board member of the Lafarge-Holcim Foundation
and a founding member of the Chilean Public Policies Society. He
was one of 100 luminaries contributing to the Rio+20 Global Summit
in 2012. Aravena was a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2000 and 2005;
and he also taught at Istituto Universitario di Architettura di
Venezia in 2005. He has held the ELEMENTAL Copec Chair at
Universidad Catolica de Chile
since 2006.
About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit education and research
institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide
leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and
sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the
Institute has more than 44,000 members worldwide representing all
aspects of land use and development disciplines. For more
information, please visit uli.org or follow us
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SOURCE Urban Land Institute