Chilean Architect Smiljan Radić Wins Pritzker Prize, Second Chilean Laureate

Chilean architect Smiljan Radić has been named this year’s Pritzker Prize laureate, the architectural world’s most prestigious honor. The award, administered by the Hyatt Foundation, was announced on the 12th local time. The prize carries a $100,000 prize and a medal, and Radić becomes the second Chilean recipient since Alejandro Aravena in 2016.

Radić was born to a Croatian father and British mother and grew up in Chile. He studied at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and at the IUAV University of Venice in Italy. In 1995, he founded Smiljan Radić Clark Arquitectos in Santiago. His buildings are noted for restrained surfaces and precise structural logic that yield spaces perceived as both fragile and immersive.

Among Radić’s notable works is the Mestizo Restaurant in Santiago (2006), constructed with stones quarried on site to form the restaurant’s structural framework. Another early project, the Coal House, was conceived as temporary housing and helped establish his reputation for architectural spaces that feel provisional yet purposeful. In London, his Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in 2014 featured donut-shaped fiberglass sculptures arranged atop stone bases, a hallmark of his experimental approach.

The jurors described Radić’s architecture as seemingly temporary and precarious but offering quiet, restorative places. They said his work embraces vulnerability as a condition of life and creates spaces that reveal subtle, unseen connections, enabling diverse interactions among users.

The prize’s announcement was unusually delayed this year after Hyatt Hotels chair Tom Pritzker stepped down amid revelations of his ties to financier Jeffrey Epstein. The delay added an unusual element to a process traditionally announced in early March.

For U.S. readers, Radić’s win underscores ongoing global shifts toward socially engaged and experimentally minded architecture that crosses borders with hospitality, culture, and public space. The Hyatt Foundation’s involvement highlights how corporate philanthropy can shape architectural discourse and opportunities in the United States, including potential collaborations with American museums, universities, and design firms.

Radić’s victory also marks Chile’s continued emergence on the world stage of contemporary architecture, following Aravena’s win seven years ago, and signals a broader trend toward resilient, site-specific design that resonates beyond national borders.