A Chilean architect who has focused his career on building low-cost social housing and reconstructing cities after natural disasters has been named the winner of architecture’s highest prize, the Pritzker.

今年的普利兹克奖(Pritzker)由一位智利建筑师获得，他的职业生涯致力于建造低成本社会福利房，以及自然灾害后的城市重建。

The architect, Alejandro Aravena, the first Pritzker laureate from Chile, received the honor at a time when his fellow architects have been recognized for designing distinctive buildings with regional materials. They include Pedro Alonso and Hugo Palmarola, who in 2014 won the Silver Lion award at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and Smiljan Radic, who that same year designed the annual pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery in London.

这位建筑师便是亚历杭德罗·阿拉维纳(Alejandro Aravena)，他是首位获得普利兹克奖的智利人，与此同时，不少其他智利建筑师亦因采用本地材料建造独特的建筑而受到赞赏，其中佩德罗·阿隆索(Pedro Alonso)和雨果·帕马洛拉(Hugo Palmarola)两人2014年在威尼斯建筑双年展上获得银狮奖；斯米尔耶·拉蒂克(Smiljan Radic)同年为伦敦蛇形画廊(Serpentine Gallery)设计了年度展馆。

Mr. Aravena’s work “gives economic opportunity to the less privileged, mitigates the effects of natural disasters, reduces energy consumption, and provides welcoming public space,” Tom Pritzker, chairman and president of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the prize, said in a statement. “Innovative and inspiring, he shows how architecture at its best can improve people’s lives.”

阿拉维纳的作品“为穷人和自然灾害的受害者提供了经济机会，减少了能源损耗，提供了友好的公共空间”， 赞助普利兹克奖的凯悦基金会(Hyatt Foundation)主席兼董事长汤姆·普利兹克(Tom Pritzker)在声明中说。“他的作品充满创新，极具启发性，展现了建筑如何最大程度地改善人们的生活。”

Indeed, Mr. Aravena, 48, in an interview, described his architecture as being fueled more by public service than by aesthetic design. While many architects aim to create iconic buildings, Mr. Aravena said he was mostly concerned with a project’s underlying purpose.

48岁的阿拉维纳在采访中说，自己的建筑更多是服从公共服务的目的，而不是服务于美学设计。很多建筑师的目标是设计标志性的建筑，而阿拉维纳却说，自己最关心的是项目的基本目的。

“Sometimes the solution to the forces at play is an economic building; sometimes you need to focus people’s imagination with architecture,” he said, adding that the challenge is “to analyze in a coldblooded way what particular equation is required.”

“有时候，对于各种现存因素的解决方案是一栋经济实惠的建筑；有时候，你需要去关注人们对建筑的想像。”他还补充说，挑战在于“以一种冷血的方式阐述眼下需要哪一种等式”。

He added: “The success, in conventional terms, is less guaranteed — you have less control over the project. But that’s thinking in artistic terms, if you consider your building a piece of art.”

他说：“用老话来说，你对项目的控制越少，成功越没有把握。但是，如果你认为自己的的建筑是一件艺术品，那就要以艺术的方式去思考。”

Though not a “starchitect,” Mr. Aravena has gained prominence in the profession: He’s this year’s director of the Venice Architecture Biennale and a former member of the Pritzker jury. He also gave a TED talk in 2014.

阿拉维纳尽管不是“明星设计师”，但也在行业内获得了声望：他是今年威尼斯建筑双年展的总监，亦是普利兹克奖评审委员会的前成员。2014年，他还做过TED演讲。

Mr. Arevena’s Santiago-based firm, Elemental, has spearheaded a participatory design-build process it calls “half of a good house,” which allows residents to complete the work themselves later and play an active role in raising their own standard of living.

阿拉维纳的公司“Elemental”曾经倡导一种分享式设计建筑程序，名为“半座好房子”，它令居民可以自行完成这栋建筑，发挥积极性，努力提高自己的生活水平。

“We transform the lack of resources into a principle of incrementality,” Mr. Aravena said. “Let’s do now what is more difficult. Let families take care of the rest through their own means.”

“我们把资源短缺变成了一种边际原则，”阿拉维纳说。“我们先做比较困难的部分，让家庭自己来按照自己的方法，做完剩下的部分。”

The firm developed this approach in northern Chile in 2003, building housing for 100 families with just $7,500 per family in government subsidies to cover the land and construction. For inspiration, Mr. Aravena drew on favelas and slums, building small housing units that can be easily expanded, while working closely with local residents.

2003年，他的公司在智利北部推广了这种方式，靠着平均每个家庭7500美元的政府土地与建设津贴，为100个家庭建造了房屋。阿拉维纳从贫民区中寻找灵感，与本地居民密切合作，建造容易扩展的小型居住单元。

He applied this same strategy in 2010, when, after Chile’s earthquake and tsunami, Elemental was given 100 days to come up with a master plan for the city of Constitución — including infrastructure, public space and buildings — by working with the population on solutions.

2010年，智利地震与海啸灾害之后，有关部门就给了Elemental公司100天时间，为孔斯蒂图西翁市设计一项城市规划的专家方案，包括基础建设、公共空间和建筑。阿拉维纳也采取了同样的策略，与全体市民合作，完成解决方案。

“We asked the community to identify not the answer, but what was the question,” Mr. Aravena said. This, it turned out, was how to manage rainfall, so the firm designed a forest that could help prevent flooding.

“我们让人们寻找问题，而不是答案，”阿拉维纳说。最后，最大的问题就是如何应对暴雨，于是公司设计了一片森林，可以防止洪水。

Elemental has also completed its share of public buildings, including several for Mr. Aravena’s alma mater, the Universidad Católica de Chile.

Elemental公司还参与建造了许多公共建筑，包括阿拉维纳的母校，智利天主教大学。

His office building for the health care company Novartis in Shanghai is under construction. And Mr. Aravena designed dormitories at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Tex.

阿拉维纳为药企诺华(Novartis)在上海设计的办公楼正在建设之中。他还为得克萨斯州奥斯汀的圣爱德华大学设计了宿舍楼。

For the Venice Biennale, Mr. Aravena plans to focus on the challenges ahead in the built environment, such as migration and climate change.

在威尼斯双年展上，阿拉维纳准备关注建筑环境所面临的挑战，包括移民和气候变迁。

His buildings are often modest and understated. They do not necessarily command attention or grab headlines.

他的建筑通常是平易近人、容易理解的。它们并不一定能够吸引关注或是登上报纸头条。

“He understands materials and construction,” the Pritzker jury said in its citation, “but also the importance of poetry and the power of architecture to communicate on many levels.”

“他理解材料与建设，”普利兹克奖评审团在颁奖词中说，“而且他理解诗歌的重要性，以及建筑在很多层面上所发挥的沟通力量。”

Mr. Aravena’s unorthodox approach started with his unconventional introduction to the profession in the late 1980s, the final years of Augusto Pinochet’s repressive dictatorship, when information was limited.

阿拉维纳非传统的工作方式始于20世纪80年代末，他亦是以非传统的方式进入这个行业，当时正值奥古斯托·皮诺切特(Augusto Pinochet)的压迫独裁统治末期，信息非常有限。

Mr. Aravena said that he began by “looking at pictures of buildings that were supposed to be important,” and then went to Italy with a sketchbook and measuring tape “to learn from the buildings themselves.”

阿拉维纳说，他靠着“研究那些可能非常重要的建筑的照片”起步，之后带着一个速写本和一个卷尺去了意大利，“向那些建筑本身学习”。

“By drawing, you build the buildings again,” he said. “Measuring — you’re in front of a blank page again.”

“通过素描，你可以重新搭建起那些建筑，”他说。“通过测量——你又要面对空白的纸页了。”

Mr. Aravena graduated in 1992 and two years later established his own practice.

1992年，阿拉维纳从学校毕业，两年后开始执业。

In 2000, as a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Mr. Aravena examined how to redefine quality in social architecture, which made him realize, “we had to create a company to go beyond the academic realm.”

2000年，作为哈佛设计学院的教授，阿拉维纳开始研究如何改进社会福利建筑的质量，他发现，“我们得开个公司，超出学术的范畴。”

A year later, Mr. Aravena and Andrés Iacobelli — a transport engineer who has since gone his own way — started Elemental, a so-called do tank (rather than a think tank), with the mandate “Let’s make a company that is able to prove that things can be better.”

一年后，阿拉维纳与交通工程师安德雷斯·亚科贝利斯（Andrés Iacobelli，他后来离开了）开创了Elemental公司，这是一个实干机构(do tank)，而不是一个智库机构(think tank)，他们的想法是，“让我们开个公司，证明事情可以变得更好。”

“If we believe we’re good designers, why not try to apply our skills to issues that matter?” Mr. Aravena said. “Social housing is a difficult question and it deserves professional quality, not professional charity.”

“如果我们相信我们自己是好的设计师，为什么不试着把我们的本领施展到重要的事情上面？”阿拉维纳说。“社会福利房屋是一个棘手的问题，值得拥有专业品质，而不是依靠专业的慈善。”

While such socially conscious work is often done in the margins of a firm, Mr. Aravena said he considered it the primary focus, worthy of top talent’s attention. “We need the best people in the entire chain of production, from the politicians to the social worker to the designer.” He added: “What we’ve been trying to do is communicate that architecture, instead of an extra cost, is an added value.”

这类具有社会意识的设计在其他公司通常处于边缘地位，但阿拉维纳说，他把这类工作视为重点，认为它值得一流人才关注。“整个生产链上，都需要最好的人才，从政治家到社会工作者再到设计师。”他补充说：“我们努力表明，建筑是一种附加的价值，而不是额外的成本。”

Mr. Arevena’s current partners in Elemental are all his former students: Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Víctor Oddó and Diego Torres. “Architecture is a collective discipline,” he said.

目前，Elemental公司的其他合伙人都是阿拉维纳以前的学生，包括冈佐拉·阿特亚加(Gonzalo Arteaga)、胡安·瑟尔达(Juan Cerda)、维克多·奥多(Víctor Oddó)和迭戈·托雷斯(Diego Torres)。“建筑是一门合作的学问，”他说。

He said he was particularly proud to be working in Chile at a time of critical mass in quality architecture, adding that he “could name maybe 10 architects — and 10 is quite a lot” of whose work he is “envious.”

他说，目前智利有大量优秀建筑，让他感到特别骄傲，他还说，“我或许可以说出十个建筑师——这个数字可不小，”他们的作品让他感到“嫉妒”。

And Mr. Aravena said he was content to continue working in the relative obscurity of Chile, with its population of about 18 million.

阿拉维纳说，他满足于继续在相对偏僻的智利默默无闻地工作，这个国家的人口只有1800万。

“We’re very O.K. to be here in the corner of the world,” he said. “We can concentrate and produce, and we’re not missing anything.”

“我们安于呆在这里，呆在世界的角落，”他说。“我们可以集中精力，努力创作，我们什么也没错过。”

With the Pritzker, however, Mr. Arevena is bound to become the subject of more attention.

然而，获得普利兹克奖肯定会令阿拉维纳获得更多关注。

But winning the prize does not come with pressure to produce, Mr. Aravena said; instead, it gives him the freedom to experiment. “I guess from now on, we don’t have to prove anything to anybody,” he said. “Now we feel more encouraged to enter fields with an even higher risk of failure.”

但是，他说，获奖并没有给他带来创作上的压力，相反却给了他实验的自由。“我想，从现在开始，我们不用再向任何人证明任何东西了，”他说。“现在我们觉得更受鼓舞，可以进入更有风险的领域。”

“Rather than the responsibility or weight that such a prize could mean, I feel now lighter,” he added, “to be able to start running.”

“我并没有被这样一个大奖所带来的责任或者沉甸甸的分量压住，而是感觉更轻盈了，”他补充说。“我可以开跑了。”