ELEMENTAL Nissen Wentzlaff Architekten   Switzerland   The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) held an invitation-only competition to renovate and expand its headquarters in Basel, replacing some ageing buildings. The scheme submitted by the Chilean practice of Alejandro Aravena, ELEMENTAL – in coll

ELEMENTAL   Mexico   Developed to contribute to the TEC raffle, which finances scholarships through the sale of lottery tickets and whose first prize is a house, the project had to adhere to very strict guidelines and a precise area of 600m².

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   The building is part of a private initiative that involved inviting eight Japanese architects (among them Sejima, Nishizawa, Juma, Fujimoto, and Ishigami) and the same number of Chilean ones to design a vacation house in Los Vilos, a rugged natural e

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   Developed within the frame of the PRES (Sustainable Reconstruction Plan) of Constitución, the new waterfront offers a walkway that is born in the city and runs along the Pacific coast close to it. The project comprises a series of connected viewing p

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   Considered to be the mining capital of Chile, Calama is located in the Atacama Desert, in the Antofagasta Region, and it is one of the driest cities in the world. However, its location by the banks of Loa River turns it into a small oasis in the midd

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   The earthquake of 8.8 that hit Chile in 2010 had a strong impact on the buildings, although the majority of them managed to stay standing. However, the tsunami that ensued was devastating because of the lack of preparation for this type of disaster.

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   On the downward slope of San Cristóbal Hill, north of Santiago, the Parque Bicentenario de la Infancia (Bicentennial Children’s Park) takes up a total area of four hectares, of which 1,800 square meters are playgrounds. One portion of the plot is slo

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Mexico   The pilgrim route is a path with more than two centuries of history, and that goes through some of the municipalities in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The most popular route, which starts in Ameca and marks a pilgrimage way of 117 kilometers to Talpa

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   The lack of quality urban spaces is one the greatest shortages of Santiago de Chile. With a population of over six million, and despite the sustained economic growth over the last decades, the urban space has not been adequately planned to provide gr

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   Descollando del perfil bajo de su entorno, el escultórico volumen de hormigón armado tan sólo se matiza mediante huecos de escala aparentemente ciclópea y profundos para protegerse de la radiación solar.

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   United States   The student hall at St. Edward’s University offers accommodation and services for students on the university’s campus outside Austin, Texas. Won in an international call for ideas, the brief asked for 300 beds, communal facilities with dining rooms,

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   The Siamese Towers are the result of a project commissioned by the Catholic University of Chile to house all its computer systems and related spaces in a glass tower with a very technological appearance. The project ponders on the integration of the

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   The Medical School of the Catholic University of Chile is north of the urban center of Santiago. In such a central location the context is denser than usual for this type of academic facility, so the project is designed in height, with three floors b

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   Within a plan to support its workers, the forestry company Arauco decided to favor their access to a permanent residence within the framework of Chile’s housing policy. There were more resources available for this project, as well as higher than aver

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   The commune of Lo Barnechea, northeast of Santiago, is one of the most expensive areas in the city. However, its urban tissue is filled with contrasts, because there are areas with luxury homes and also dense zones of social housing, as well as self-

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Mexico   The high prices of housing in Mexico make it very difficult for low-income families to have access to an adequate dwelling. Encouraged by the previous experiences in Chile, the IVNL (housing institute of Nuevo León) decided to commission Elemental to

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   The housing project in Renca, a community northwest of Santiago, took shape when a group of families living in informal settlements of the area got together to ask for decent housing without having to be pushed to the outskirts. They were offered a n

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   Quinta Monroy was, at least when the project was undertaken, the last informal settlement in the center of Iquique, a city in the Chilean desert, 1,500 kilometers north of Santiago. The poor living conditions favored its inclusion in a government pro

ELEMENTAL  

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Italy   Industrialization plays a key role in contemporary construction and can offer solutions to housing issues because it provides huge benefits in terms of build time and quality. Since 2008, Elemental has devoted part of its research to several housing

Alejandro Aravena ELEMENTAL   Chile   The cultural Center of Constitución, located on the southern side of a plaza in the city center, is one of the public buildings completed within the PRES initiative (plan for sustainable reconstruction) launched after the earthquake and the tsunami o

ELEMENTAL   Chile   The Faculty of Mathematics of the Catholic University of Santiago occupied two neutral and schematic structures of the 1970s and needed a new building for its administration department and for the faculty, without a predetermined location. The projec

The excessive art complex that the Qatari authorities are raising in downtown Doha, with buildings like the Museum of Islamic Art by Ieoh Ming Pei and the National Museum of Qatar by Jean Nouvel already standing, will soon have a no less ambitious ad

Antón García-Abril   El joven arquitecto chileno expone la situación de su país tras el terremoto de febrero de 2010, narra la experiencia del ‘do tank’ Elemental, y se define como gestor de incertidumbres. 

Alejandro Aravena Andrés Iacobelli   Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual