St edward university alejandro aravena biography
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Alejandro Aravena
The other fundamental theme of Aravena’s work is that tied to the activity of Elemental, which through the support of Catholic organisations and Copec (the Chilean Petroleum Company) carries out social and public urban planning and construction works.
In 2010 he was named International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architect and identified as one of the 20 new heroes of the world by Monocle magazine. The Elemental method has also been applied in the reconstruction of the city of Constitución, which was struck in 2010 by a devastating earthquake and consequential tsunami, and in areas of Equador and Mexico (Monterrey) suffering from similar fates, applying on a grand scale that which has been described as “incremental design”.
From 2000 until 2005 he was professor at Harvard University, where together with engineer Andres Iacobelli he found the social housing initiative ELEMENTAL, an Urban Do Tank, partner of Universidad Catolica and Chilean Oil Company Copec. Forget Facebook: in Aravena’s student village, it’s the architecture which functions as social media.
The central void provides a shaded passageway linking parts of the campus
The exterior facade is broken up by slim windows, which belong to the dormitory rooms
The mass of textured brick is softened by the removal of some of its corners
Alejandro Aravena (* 1967 Chile) graduated in Architecture from Universidad Católica de Chile in 1992.
It also includes a Montessori School (2000), St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas (2008), a Children Workshop and Chairless for Vitra in Germany (2008), writer’s cabins for Michalsky Foundation in Switzerland (2015) and a building for Novartis in their new campus in China (2015).
Since 2009 he is member of the Pritzker Prize Jury.
Thanks to the technical and design support workshops coordinated by Elemental architects, the inhabitants – who are also involved in the design stage through an articulated process of participation – have begun to expand and modify the buildings and spaces in the district, from the addition of furniture and of parts of their old houses, right up to more complex expansion works.
© Photo: Cristóbal Palma)
St Edward's University New Residence and Dining Hall / Alejandro Aravena
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- Area: 30000 m²
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Rather than addressing any particular style, the new building instead refers to its environment, striving to create a new typology suited to the local conditions.
“There’s an advantage to being an outsider – you ask very basic questions,” says Aravena. ArchDaily. Hence, Aravena conceived a four-storey building of lightly-hued brick, its mass tempered by the obliteration of some corners, that wraps itself around a naturally-shaded courtyard.
A visitor moves past an exterior minimally articulated by slender windows and into the building via an alley running from east to west.
The architect, known for his inventive approach to housing the urban poor of South America (icon 067), has ventured onto a small Catholic university campus. He is a Board Member of the Cities Program of the London School of Economics since 2011; Regional Advisory Board Member of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; Board Member of the Swiss Holcim Foundation since 2013; Foundational Member of the Chilean Public Policies Society; Leader of the Helsinki Design Lab for SITRA, the Finnish Government Innovation Fund.
“It’s important to give everyday activities a better architectural standard,” he explains.
A “Cartesian canyon” is how Aravena describes the interior space. The sleeping areas occupy the building’s perimeter, enjoying a campus view and natural light.
By clustering the public spaces together in a manner that makes them easily visible from one another, the building offers opportunities for social exchange, an enhancement to student life on a campus.
His work include several buildings for Universidad Catolica: Mathematics School (1998), Medical School (2001), Architecture School (2004), Siamese Towers (2005) and more recently the Angelini Innovation Center (2014).
His work has been distinguished with several awards such as the Design of the Year (London Design Museum, 2015), 1st Prize of Zumtobel Global Award (Austria, 2014), World Green Building Council Chairman’s Award (USA, 2014), the 1st Prize Index Award (Denmark, 2011), Silver Medal Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction (Switzerland, 2011), 1st Prize Brit Insurance Design Awards (UK, 2010), Curry Stone Design Award (USA,2010), the Marcus Prize (USA, 2009), the Silver Lion at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia (2008), the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (France, 2007), the Erich Schelling Architecture Medal (Germany,2006) and the Bicentennial Medal for his contribution to the country’s development (Chile, 2004).
His work has been featured in the São Paulo Biennale (2007), the Milano Triennale (2008), the Venice Architecture Biennale (2008 and 2012),the MoMA in New York (2010), the MA Gallery in Tokyo (2011) and is part of the collection of the Centre Pompidou.
His work has been published in over 50 countries, Electa published the monography Alejandro Aravena; progettare e costruire in (Milan, 2007) and Toto published Alejandro Aravena; the Forces in Architecture (Tokyo, 2011).
Author of Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (Architectural Facts, 1999), El Lugar de la Arquitectura (The Place in/of Architecture, 2002) and Material de Arquitectura (Architecture Matters, 2003).
He established Alejandro Aravena Architects in 1994. Hatje-Cantz published the first monograph dedicated to the social housing projects of Elemental: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual (Berlin, 2012) launched at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia. At St Edward’s University, Aravena offers a bold yet thoughtfully conceived 119,000sq ft, $26 million dormitory.
The name of the programme is an indication of the desire to produce the basic elements for low-cost housing which each individual family is then invited to complete according to their particular needs and economic situation, often carrying out works themselves.