Smiljan Radić Clarke of Chile is the winner of this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize, an honor widely considered to be architecture's highest distinction, with the award's jury members touting his ever-changing design styles.
The 60-year-old architect was born in Santiago and graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His portfolio spans a variety of property types and designs, with his work not characterized by a single prevailing style. Structures he designed are intended to help users "experience architecture through atmosphere, material presence and a sense of discovery," according to DesignBoom, an industry publication.
While known professionally as Smiljan Radić, he wanted to honor his mother by including her last name, Clarke, in the Pritzker Architecture Prize's official announcement of this year's winner, according to NPR. An eight-person jury of architects and others from outside the design field selected the winner.
"Through a body of work positioned at the crossroads of uncertainty, material experimentation, and cultural memory," Radić favors "fragility over any unwarranted claim to certainty," the Pritzker jury said in a statement. "His buildings appear temporary, unstable or deliberately unfinished."
One of his most unusual designs is a temporary structure for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilions in London's Kensington Gardens. The Guardian, a British publication, described it as "a cow's udder stuffed with newspaper and wrapped in strips of masking tape."
Radić said the structure reflected his appreciation of "fragile constructions that have nothing to do with the history of architecture, like road-side fruit stalls, travelling circus tents and the simple shelters people build for themselves with whatever materials are on hand."
His work also veers into the realm of visual art and sculpture, such as the "Drops" installation in Croatia, where blobs of varying sizes are scattered across a dry, rocky landscape.
Other works designed by Radić are more standard buildings, such as single-family residences, restaurants, wineries, museums and bus stops. The Pritzker jury highlighted several of his designs for commercial projects, such as the Vik Winery, part of the Vik resort hotel in Millahue, Chile, and the Restaurant Mestizo in Santiago, Chile.
Another project, Teatro Regional del Biobío, is a performance venue in Concepción, Chile, for which a "carefully engineered semi-translucent envelope modulates light and supports acoustic performance through restraint," according to the Pritzker jury.
Radić is the 55th recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Last year's winner was Liu Jiakun of China. Previous winners include Renzo Piano of Italy, Francis Kéré of Burkina Faso, Zaha Hadid of Iraq and Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Ireland, who jointly won the award in 2020.
The Pritzker Prize was established in 1979 by the late Jay Pritzker, a founder of Hyatt Hotels, to recognize excellence in architecture. It is named for the Pritzker family. The yearly $100,000 prize is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation. The foundation typically hosts an award ceremony in May at different locations worldwide, but it has not announced a date or location for this year's ceremony.
Tom Pritzker, who is Jay Pritzker's son, last month stepped down as executive chairman at Hyatt Hotels Corp. after his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was revealed in the latest release of files by the U.S. Justice Department. Tom Pritzker also resigned from matters relating to the Pritzker Prize, according to a spokesperson for the Pritzker Prize, but he remains chairman of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the Pritzker Prize, and executive chairman of the Pritzker Organization, the family's Chicago-based investment firm.