Alejandro Aravena graduated in architecture in 1992 from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He later moved to Venice to attend a course at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura and to take engraving courses at the Accademia di Belle Arti. Since 1994 he has worked as an independent professional.
He has been a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile since 1994 and taught at Harvard University from 2000 to 2005. He currently holds the Elemental-Copec Chair at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. From 2009 to 2015 he was a member of the jury for the Pritzker Prize and, in 2016, he won the award himself, becoming the first Chilean architect to receive it. In 2009 he was appointed International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
In 2001 he founded the architecture studio Elemental together with Andrés Iacobelli and, since 2006, has served as its executive director. In collaboration with Gonzalo Arteaga, Diego Torres, Víctor Oddó and Juan Ignacio Cerda, the practice led by Aravena develops social projects in the fields of infrastructure, transport, public space and housing, in partnership with the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the oil company Copec.
In 2016 he was appointed artistic director of the Architecture Department of the Venice Biennale, inviting, among others, Raphael Zuber, Herzog & de Meuron, Tadao Ando, Peter Zumthor, David Chipperfield, SANAA, Renato Rizzi and Francis Kéré.
His work has received several awards, including the Silver Lion at the 11th Venice Biennale, the 2010 Marcus Prize, the Avonni Award for Innovator of the Year, the 2006 Erich Schelling Medal, the Pritzker Prize in 2016, and others.
