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Smiljan Radic: The Latest Architecture and News

The Power of Emotions: How Does Space Move Us?

"The taste of the apple lies in the contact of the fruit with the palate, not in the fruit itself," Jorge Luis Borges once said. The taste is not something inherent in itself; its experience is the result of an encounter. Similarly, emotions are not contained within architecture, but are only felt through the encounter of the body with the space, when it becomes a place. How does the environment affect how we feel? This is the question that drives the duo of artists and filmmakers Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine in their latest endeavor, the book "The Emotional Power of Space," which will be released on May 17th in an event preceding the opening of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023.

Exploring Vulnerable Habitats in the XXII Chile Architecture Biennial

After the interruption of the 2019 edition due to the Social crisis in Chile, the Chilean Architecture Biennial returned to Santiago in January 2023 under the theme of 'Vulnerable Habitats', addressing issues such as "the emergence of the housing deficit in a context in which slums, informality, and illegal land takeovers have increased in recent years" and "the vulnerability and deterioration of public spaces; the urgent protection of tangible heritage; and environmental vulnerability in a context of a climate crisis."

ArchDaily’s Readers Select Who Should Win the 2023 Pritzker Prize

As part of our yearly tradition, we have asked our readers who should win the 2023 Pritzker Prize, the most important award in the field of architecture.

For those who don't know, the Pritzker Prize is funded by Jay Pritzker through the Hyatt Foundation in the United States and has been awarded to living architects, regardless of their nationality, whose built work "has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity through the art of architecture."

Smiljan Radic Designs Hotel for Solo Houses Project in Spain

The Solo Houses project has just announced the incorporation of the Venta d'Aubert Winery in Crete, Spain, and the construction of a hotel designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radic. Solo Hotel will become the centerpiece of the community and a catalyst for tourism and cultural activities around the project.

Smiljan Radic and Javier González Pesce Disappear an Art Gallery in Chile

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An inflatable and soft body—a silver balloon—scatters towards the sidewalk in the heart of Santiago, Chile. People walk by touching the strange artifact, curiously looking at the object moving over the public space. Behind the pillow, the Gabriela Mistral Gallery disappears.

Smiljan Radic Designs Transparent Dome for Alexander McQueen Show in London

Chilean architect Smiljan Radic has designed and installed a perfectly transparent dome for Alexander McQueen's Spring / Summer 2022 fashion show earlier this week in London.

Chile Discards Design by Smiljan Radic, Cecilia Puga and Paul Velasco for its Expo 2020 Dubai Pavilion

In 2019, Chile launched an open call for the design of its national pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. Among 24 submissions, the jury chose the proposal presented by Chilean architects Smiljan Radic, Cecilia Puga, and Paula Velasco.

The proposal consisted of traveling a modular oak lamella shed to Dubai, originally built in Chile back in the mid-twentieth century. At the time of its official presentation in 2019, the architects defined the project as "a primitive mark on the ground, as nomadic tribes have done for centuries in this now globalized desert [Dubai]. This physical and cultural dimension is necessary to adapt the pavilion as a friendly and austere space."

Spotlight: Smiljan Radić

Mainly known outside of his home country for his design of the 2014 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, architect Smiljan Radić (born June 21, 1965) is one of the most prominent figures in current Chilean architecture. With a distinctive approach to form, materials, and natural settings, Radić mostly builds small- to medium-sized projects that flirt with the notion of fragility.

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Life after Serpentine: Second Lives of Architecture's Famed Pavilions

If the surest sign of summer in London is the appearance of a new pavilion in front of the Serpentine Gallery, then it’s perhaps fair to say that summer is over once the pavilion is taken down. The installations have gained prominence since its inaugural edition in 2000, acting as a kind of exclusive honor and indication of talent for those chosen to present; celebrated names from the past names include Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, and Olafur Eliasson.

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Look Inside the Vatican Venice Biennale Chapels in New Video from Spirit of Space

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Norman Foster. Image Courtesy of Foster + Partners

Vatican City participated in the Venice Architecture Biennale for the first time this year, inviting the public to explore a sequence of unique chapels designed by renowned architects including Norman Foster and Eduardo Souto de Moura. Located in the woods that cover the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, the chapels offer interpretations of Gunnar Asplund’s 1920 chapel at Woodland Cemetery in Stockholm, a seminal example of modernist memorial architecture set in a similarly natural wooded context.

A new video produced by Spirit of Space offers a brief virtual tour of the structures that make up the Holy See’s pavilion, lingering on each just long enough to show different views and angles. As members of the public circulate through the chapels in each shot, the scenes give an impression of how each chapel guides circulation.

Round-Up: The Serpentine Pavilion Through the Years

Lasting for close to two decades now, the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion Exhibition has become one of the most anticipated architectural events in London and for the global architecture community. Each of the previous eighteen pavilions have been thought-provoking, leaving an indelible mark and strong message to the architectural community. And even though each of the past pavilions are removed from the site after their short summer stints to occupy far-flung private estates, they continue to be shared through photographs, and in architectural lectures. With the launch of the 18th Pavilion, we take a look back at all the previous pavilions and their significance to the architecturally-minded public.

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Smiljan Radic Receives the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize 2018

Chilean architect Smiljan Radic was announced the winner of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize 2018 Architecture Awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York.

The academy's annual architecture awards program began in 1955 with the opening of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize. The prize is given to an architect of any nationality who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. The program has since been expanded to include four Arts and Literature Awards for American architects that explore ideas in architecture through any medium of expression.

10 Chapels in a Venice Forest Comprise The Vatican's First Ever Biennale Contribution

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Aerial view. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu

With the opening of the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale comes a look at the first ever contribution by the Holy See, an exhibition that brings together architects to design chapels that, after the Biennale, can be relocated to sites around the globe.

Located in a wooded area on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore, 10 chapels by architects including Norman Foster, Eduardo Souto de Moura, and Smiljan Radic, are joined by the Asplund Chapel by MAP Architects. This 11th structure serves as a prelude to the other chapels, while reflecting on Gunnar Asplund's 1920 design for the Woodland Chapel.

Smiljan Radic: "I Always Collect Things From All Over; There Is Little Invention"

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Mestizo Restaurant / Smiljan Radic. Image © Gonzalo Puga

A lot of things are said about Smiljan Radic. Some say that he belongs to an architecture that borders on the sculptural. It is also said that both his aesthetic and his silence is admired by his peers. It is also said that he is so hermetic that he doesn’t even have a website to promote his work. All these things are said about the 52 years old Chilean architect, before he starts his talk "more or less a year," at the Puerto de Ideas Festival in Valparaíso (Chile), where he reviews his latest projects.

"Saying something -and saying something else- has always seemed impossible or very difficult for me. I always collect things from everywhere. And that's what I do. There isn’t much more to it than that: there is little invention. In spite of everything, one has to end up talking, saying things. And today we are going to talk about what I could and could not do in the past year", he says at the beginning of his talk at the Cousiño Palace in Valparaíso.

Cloud ’68—Paper Voice. Smiljan Radić’s collection of Radical Architecture

CLOUD ’68—PAPER VOICE
Smiljan Radić’s Collection of Radical Architecture
With recordings of interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Co-curated by Patricio Mardones

10 Architects to Design Chapels for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

In 2018 the Vatican will participate in the Venice Architecture Biennale for the first time. Ten international architects will construct 10 different chapels as part of the representation of the city-state in the Italian architecture event. The news was confirmed by Paraguayan media outlets ABC y Última Hora, who revealed that one of the participants was local architect Javier Corvalán.

The elite group of architects was selected by Francesco Dal Co, an Italian architecture historian and curator. The designers have been instructed that their chapels must be able to be relocated so that they can be deployed around the world, in places that are in need of these spaces of worship.

The architects who will build chapels in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale:

Best Vineyards in Chile & Argentina (For Wine and Architecture)

Each year millions of wine enthusiasts travel the globe in search of memorable tasting experiences. And architecture-loving Oenophiles (wine aficionados) are likely to seek vineyards that not only produce outstanding libations, but also those with impressive architecture. With world-famous wines and evergrowing international renown, the vineyards of South America accommodate thousands of wine tourists each year. Chile and Argentina currently sit in the top 10 wine-exporting countries; Chile exported $1.9 billion worth of wine in 2016 and Argentina exported $816.8 million in the same year.

Separated by the Andes, the valleys surrounding Argentina's Mendoza and Chile's central valley (including Elqui, Limarí, Aconcagua, Maipo, Casablanca, Colchagua, Cachapoal, Maule and Curicó valleys) attract a high number of enotourists. The wineries and vineyards featured below have moved away from the traditional image of the historic country house in both aesthetic terms and (sometimes) in the use of materials in the winemaking process. These properties also exist in natural harmony with the surrounding landscape to make the most of sunlight, air circulation and topography for the construction of wine cellars, hotels, tasting rooms, lookouts and viewing points, and research centers. The new and vibrant architectural designs serve as innovation inspiration in their production of the wines as well.