New Slant

Chilean practice Elemental shows monumental leanings with a blockbuster of a retreat

The more complex, intriguing and seemingly impossible a project is, the more it piques the interest of Chilean practice Elemental. Ever keen to learn, adapt and evolve, its team has produced work that not only questions architecture’s wider social responsibility, but also comes up with some great answers – a path which has led its director Alejandro Aravena (who co-founded the practice in 2001 with Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó and Diego Torres) to the 2016 Pritzker Prize. That same year, Aravena took his manifesto to the Venice Architecture Biennale, curating its 15th edition, ‘Reporting from the Front’.

Within this context of constant experimentation, designing a holiday retreat for a private developer may seem an unusual choice (in nearly 20 years, Elemental has only ever worked on two other single family houses). It is ‘the ultimate banality’, says Aravena. ‘But the biggest battle in the office is the war on cliché,’ he continues. ‘In principle, we don’t do private homes, but we try not to fall into the trap of being biased.’