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Chilean Architect Smiljan Radić Named Pritzker Prize Laureate, Bringing “Nobel of Architecture” Home
Concepción, Chile – Smiljan Radić Clarke, the celebrated Chilean architect, was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize on Thursday, an honor often dubbed the “Nobel of architecture.” The news came as a complete surprise to Radić, who expressed both immense honor and a touch of apprehension about the increased spotlight.
“Yes, completely,” Radić shared via email with NPR, acknowledging the “huge honor” while also anticipating “a bit of a headache, since it will probably mean being far more exposed than I would like.”
While not a household name internationally alongside previous Pritzker laureates like Zaha Hadid or Frank Gehry, Radić, 60, has cultivated a formidable reputation within artistic and intellectual circles. The New York Times previously hailed him as “a rock star among architects” following his captivating 2014 contribution to London’s esteemed Serpentine Pavilion.
For this annual showcase of cutting-edge architects, Radić designed a luminous, alien-like rotund pod, set atop weathered quarry stones. Critics were enthralled. Ellis Woodman of The Telegraph described it as belonging “at once to a world of science fiction and to a primordial past,” noting its capacity to “stand out of time.”
Born to immigrant parents in Santiago – his father’s family from Croatia and his mother’s from the United Kingdom – Radić traditionally uses his father’s surname. However, upon receiving the Pritzker, he chose to honor his mother by including her last name in the official announcement.
Radić’s journey through architecture wasn’t always smooth. He nearly failed out of the program at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, an experience he later described as crucial, enabling him to travel and delve into history.
During his studies, he met sculptor Marcela Correa, who would become his wife and frequent collaborator. Their joint endeavors include the renowned House for the Poem of the Right Angle, a secluded residence nestled in the Vilches woods of Chile, completed in 2013.
This striking black concrete structure, a bold fusion of sharp angles and flowing curves, drew inspiration from an abstract painting by Le Corbusier. Its interior, clad in cedar and stone, offers an open and airy feel. The Pritzker committee lauded it as a “contemplative retreat,” with “thoughtfully placed openings, oriented upward to capture light and time, encouraging stillness and introspection.”
Radić’s impressive portfolio also features several acclaimed performing arts venues across Chile, including the NAVE arts hall in Santiago and the Teatro Regional del Bío Bío in Concepción. The Pritzker jury praised the latter as a “carefully engineered semi-translucent envelope [that] modulates light and supports acoustic performance through restraint,” observing that “construction becomes a kind of storytelling, where texture and mass carry as much meaning as form.”
His VIK winery in Millahue, Chile, from certain perspectives, resembles a colossal piece of agricultural machinery. Radić explained its design aimed to reflect the practicalities of winemaking rather than romanticized notions of the fermented grape, crediting industrial processes and chemistry as his muse. “It’s not really about some concept I don’t like, the idea of terroir,” he stated during a 2023 lecture, adding, “It’s a lot of myth.”
In recent years, Radić has also collaborated with high fashion brand Alexander McQueen, designing stores in global fashion hubs like Miami, Las Vegas, London, and Dubai. Yet, the Pritzker jury underscored that his buildings “invite interpretation, rather than consumption.”
This year’s Pritzker jury was chaired by Alejandro Aravena, who, in 2016, became the first Chilean to win the prize. Aravena’s profound admiration for his countryman was evident in a Pritzker statement: “In every work, he is able to answer with radical originality, making the unobvious obvious. He reverts back to the most irreducible basic foundations of architecture, exploring at the same time, limits that have not yet been touched.”
The Pritzker Prize, which awards $100,000 and a bronze medallion, faced scrutiny in February regarding past communications between Tom Pritzker, the foundation’s director, and Jeffrey Epstein. Tom Pritzker, son of prize founders Jay A. and Cindy Pritzker, has since stepped down as executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, though he remains chairman of The Hyatt Foundation. A spokesperson for the Pritzker Prize affirmed to The New York Times that the Hyatt Foundation safeguards the prize from external influence, ensuring the jury can “remain assured in the strength of its process and focus entirely on the celebration of architectural excellence.”
Reflecting on the current global climate, Radić acknowledged, “This sad moment in history is not the best circumstance in which to receive an award.” When asked about the relevance of architecture amid widespread conflict and destruction, he quoted Chilean poet Nicanor Parra: “‘the sky is falling apart,’ and today we might add that the earth itself seems to be cracking.” Despite this, Radić maintains a hopeful outlook: “Still, I believe that architecture is a positive act – it helps create concrete realities where people can value their surroundings in a different way.”