Chilean Architect Aravena wins the Pritzker, but Photographs miss the point
There is no doubt on the influence of the Pritzker prize on the architecture community. This is the precise reason the Chilean architect, Alejandro Aravena’s Pritzker win means much more. His particular interest in social housing will make the social role of the architects a popular subject. However, the way Aravena’s work is being portrayed by the media could give the wrong impression or a misled fantasy on the social engagement of architecture.
Aravena is most well known for his social housing projects where only half of the buildings are completed so that the residents can choose to build upon it in the future. The photographs that show before and after the additions go beyond showing architectural forms and reveal the unique character and the naked life of the residents. Unfinished staircases, exposed bricks, old furniture that don’t get along with each other — It is not your typical slick interior shot in design magazines. However, these photographs also celebrate the ‘architectural triumph.’ They mimic the bravado of the standard architecture photographs and renderings.
It is a problem that these projects are displayed as victories. The bluntly voyeuristic photographs expose the daily struggles of the individuals who aspire for higher economic status. The images package the fierce battles into a nice artsy collection and leave the viewer with an uncomfortable impression. We are uncertain whether it is the architecture or the enduring will of the inhabitants that moves us.
The images do not do justice to Aravena’s work and approach. Aravena’s work is an aesthetic achievement, but what sets his work apart is the entire design process in which his firm works with public and private forces in order to employ such a strategy and follow through with it. The methods and know-hows truly demonstrate why Aravena and his practice Elemental is a paragon of socially engaging architecture.
The Pritzker Award’s influence is undebatable and thus proper depiction of the winning architect’s work is critical. Therefore, it would be more appropriate and meaningful if there were more material or descriptions of the process that go beyond the photographs. Since the architect’s work is better represented by the process that has the potential to be generalized, the legacy of Aravena can become a precedent rather than an example in which other architects adopt as a starting point of social engagement through their practice.
