Chilean architect Smiljan Radic, 61, was selected this year's winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, known as the "Nobel Prize of architecture."
The Pritzker Prize, established in 1979 by the Hyatt Foundation in the United States, is the world's most prestigious architecture award. The winner receives $100,000 and a medal. This year, the announcement, initially noticed for the 2nd, was delayed after Tom Pritzker, who leads the Hyatt Group, resigned following links to the Epstein scandal.
On the 12th (local time), the Hyatt Foundation announced Radic as this year's Pritzker winner. The Pritzker jury said, "Radic's architecture tells stories through the texture of materials and the experience of space, rather than form," and noted that it "returns to the most fundamental elements of architecture to explore the relationship between humans and the environment."
Radic has drawn international attention in architecture for works including the Serpentine Pavilion in London (2014) and the Biobio Regional Theater in Concepcion, Chile (2018). Born in Chile in 1965, Radic studied at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the Iuav University of Venice, and in 1995 founded the "Smiljan Radic CLARK Material Handling Asia" architecture office in Santiago, Chile.
Since then, at the "Fundacion de ArquitecturalFragil," founded in 2017, he has supported experimental architecture. With this award, Radic became the second Chilean winner of the Pritzker Prize, following Alejandro Aravena in 2016.
His architecture is regarded as original work that combines sculptural forms with the natural environment. In particular, his experimental approach of drawing light and the passage of time into space has earned high praise in architecture and the arts.
House for the poetry of the right angle (2013) is representative. Inspired by drawings of Le Corbusier, this dwellings was designed to create a space for reflection and meditation by bringing in light and the flow of time through upward-facing windows.
In his acceptance remarks that day, Radic said, "Architecture is a positive act that allows people to see their surroundings anew," adding, "In difficult times, architecture can be a force to rebuild reality."