Alejandro Aravena was in Florianópolis last week, invited by the 2019 NCD Summit to speak on Social Architecture. Founder of the "do tank" ELEMENTAL, the 2016 Pritzker Laureate gave an overview of his work, spanning diverse project typologies, while highlighting the processes that led to the adopted solutions. Before his lecture, Aravena spoke exclusively with ArchDaily Brasil. Read the interview below:
ADBR - ELEMENTAL's projects generally seek not only to solve the given problems, but to take a step back and understand all the constraints and factors influencing the work itself. What is the firm's design process like?
AA – It is not a method; it is an approach that has proven effective for us in capturing the complexity of the question. We start with "x=?", where x is the form and the question mark represents deliberately not wanting to know what form a project should take before understanding the forces at play, the equation, and the question that needs to be answered. Therefore, we dedicate a significant amount of time to identifying what that question is.
