Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has won the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize for work that “epitomises the revival of a more socially engaged architect”.
Tom Pritzker, chairman and president of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the prize, announced the award on Wednesday. Mr. Aravena, 48, is the first Pritzker laureate from Chile, and the fourth from Latin America.
The jury cited, among others, five buildings Mr. Aravena has designed for his alma mater, the Universidad Catolica de Chile, including its mathematics school, its medical school and, in 2014, its Angelini Innovation Centre, an opaque concrete structure with a light-filled glass atrium inside.
Mr. Aravena’s resume includes private, public and educational commissions. He designed a residence and dining hall at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, and in Shanghai, China, a building for the pharmaceutical company Novartis.
