Alejandro Aravena graduated as an architect from Catholic University of Chile in 1992. He continued his studies of Theory and Art History in IUAV in Venice. In 1994 he established his own practice, Alejandro Aravena Architects. From 2000 until 2005, he taught at Harvard University, where he founded the Do Tank ELEMENTAL with Andres Iacobelli. In 2010 he was granted membership as an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He also curated the 15th Venice Biennale, and in 2016 he received the Pritzker Prize. Since 2001 he has remained principal director of ELEMENTAL.

Elemental

Elemental consist of Alejandro Aravena, Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddo and Diego Torres. It is a Do Tank founded in 2001, focusing on projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure and transportation. It's fundamental approach is based on its participatory design process, in which it works closely with the public and end users. Elemental has built work in Chile, the United States, Mexico, China and Switzerland. In response to the 2010 earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile, it was called to work on the reconstruction of the city of Constitucion, where it was able to integrate the body of knowledge previously accumulated during similar experience elsewhere. Its methodology has proved useful throughout all of its urban undertakings concerning social and political conflict.

Teaching, Writing, Exhibitions

Aravena was Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor at Har­vard GSD (2000-05) and is cur­rent­ly the El­e­men­tal-Copec Pro­fes­sor at UC. He is mem­ber of the Pritzk­er Prize Ju­ry and has been named In­ter­na­tion­al Fel­low of the Roy­al In­sti­tute of British Ar­chi­tects (RI­BA). Pro­fes­sion­al Work in­clude Ed­u­ca­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties, In­sti­tu­tion­al, cor­po­rate and Pub­lic build­ings, Mu­se­ums, Hous­es and Hous­ing, and his last prod­uct for Vi­t­ra, the Chair­less. Lec­tures have been held in The Lon­don School of Eco­nomics and RI­BA in the UK, Amer­i­ca´s So­ci­ety in NY, In­ter­Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank in Wash­ing­ton, Ex­per­i­men­ta De­sign in Por­tu­gal and De­sign Ind­a­ba Southafrica among oth­er places.

His Books in­clude Los He­chos de la Ar­qui­tec­tura, El Lu­gar de la Ar­qui­tec­tura and Ma­te­ri­al de Ar­qui­tec­tura and a monog­ra­phy on El­e­men­tal by Ac­tar to be pub­lished in 2010. Pub­li­ca­tions on his work in­clude the monog­ra­phy Ale­jan­dro Ar­ave­na, pro­gettare e costru­ire by Elec­ta, Ken­neth Framp­ton's 4th edi­tion of Mod­ern Ar­chi­tec­ture; a crit­i­cal his­to­ry, Thames & Hud­son's 60 In­no­va­tors shap­ing our cre­ative fu­ture and books by Phaidon and Taschen. Mag­a­zines in­clude GA (Japan), Icon, Mon­o­cle and Ar­chi­tec­tural Re­view (UK), Casabel­la, Lo­tus, Abitare, The Plan and Do­mus (Italy), Ar­qui­tec­tura Vi­va (Spain), De­tail and Arch+ (Ger­many), Mark and Vol­ume (Nether­lands), Ar­chi­tec­tural Record, Dwell, Prax­is and Per­spec­ta (Unit­ed States) and oth­ers in more than 30 oth­er coun­tries.

Ex­hi­bi­tions on his work have been held at Har­vard GSD (2004), Sao Paulo Bi­en­nale (2007), Venice Bi­en­nale and Mi­lan Tri­en­nale (2008) among oth­er places. In 2011 he will be fea­tured in MA Gallery in Tokyo.