Chilean Smiljan Radic Clarke wins architecture's highest honor

"Seeming to belong at once to a world of science fiction and to a primordial past, the pavilion could well serve as the film set for a post-apocalyptic drama. And yet it also invites association with the use of ruins and grottoes in the eighteenth century English landscape garden. What is most captivating about Radic's heroically peculiar pavilion is the way that it seems to stand out of time."

"Yes, completely, [It's] a huge honor. And possibly, in the very near future, a bit of a headache, since it will probably mean being far more exposed than I would like."

Smiljan Radic, a 60-year-old Chilean architect, became the second from his country to win the Pritzker Prize, often called the Nobel of architecture. Though not as internationally recognized as previous winners like Zaha Hadid or Frank Gehry, Radic has built a formidable reputation in artistic and intellectual circles through dozens of acclaimed buildings. His 2014 Serpentine Pavilion in London, a glowing pod-like structure perched on quarry stones, exemplified his distinctive style that critics described as simultaneously futuristic and primordial. Radic expressed surprise at winning and acknowledged the award would increase his exposure beyond his preference. He grew up in Santiago in an immigrant family with Croatian and British heritage, and chose to include his mother's surname Clarke in his official prize announcement.

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