Chilean architect and 2016 Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena has been named as the winner of the 2018 RIBA Charles Jencks Award by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). 

The award is given to an individual or practice that has recently made a major contribution internationally to both the theory and practice of architecture. 

Alejandro Aravena will receive his award on Monday, October 15, 2018 at the RIBA in London, following a lecture by the architect. The event will be chaired by Charles Jencks.

UC Innovation Center – Anacleto Angelini, 2014, San Joaquín Campus, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Image © Nina Vidic.

Alejandro Aravena graduated as an architect from the Catholic University of Chile in 1992, continuing his studies at IUAV in Venice. After establishing his own practice, Alejandro went on to teach at Harvard University, where he founded the “Do Tank” Elemental with Andrés Iacobelli. 

Led by Alejandro, alongside Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó and Diego Torres, the practice, based in Chile, works globally, on projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure and transportation.

Ocho Quebradas House. Image courtesy of RIBA

In 2010 Alejandro was granted membership as an International Fellow of the RIBA. In 2015, he was announced as Director of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale and in 2016 he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Alejandro Aravena with Elemental partners Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó, and Diego Torres. Image courtesy of RIBA

"Alejandro Aravena is an excellent role model for students and emerging practitioners. Energetically combining professional practice, written pedagogy, and academia, his work has a classical tectonic force, a humbling relevance to the global debate about social housing, and a refusal to be subject to conventional expectations," said Chair of the RIBA Charles Jencks Award judging panel and RIBA Director of Education, David Gloster.

Top image courtesy of RIBA

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