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What began as an academic initiative to improve the quality of life of the poor strata of the population has now become a professional "do tank" offering services that cover the entire spectrum of urban development. The celebrated Chilean architect, winner of the 2016 Pritzker Prize and Director of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, Alejandro Aravena (born 1967) founded Elemental in 2001 in his hometown with the goal of alleviating social deprivation directly instead of hoping for a balance of income relations. Besides building public facilities and public housing, Elemental also develops new approaches for the reorganization of resources and the potential of cities by means of projects devoted to infrastructure and transportation. This volume, first published in 2013 and now back in print, documents the social activity and history of the international architectural team and sheds light on its financing strategies, for example through participatory building.

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Aravena, Alejandro
Chilean-based Alejandro Aravena established his own practice in 1994. From 2000 until 2005, he taught at Harvard University, where he founded Elemental with Andres Iacobelli. In 2010 he was granted membership as an International Fellow of RIBA. He curated the 2016 Venice Biennale, and in the same year received the Pritzker Prize.

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