Elemental

Elemental is a creative studio founded by Alejandro Aravena and partners Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó and Diego Torres in 2001. The studio works on projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure and transportation. They design creative and captivating objects, interiors and lighting solutions, which offer functional illumination to residential and commercial spaces. Elemental takes an unbiased approach to design.

In the world of product design, they are best known for their work alongside Artemide. Elemental’s work has been recognised through many awards: the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2008, the Index Award in 2011 in Copenhagen, the Design of the Year for the Angelini Innovation Centre in 2015 in London and the Gothenburg Award for sustainability in 2017. In 2016, Alejandro Aravena himself was awarded the Pritzker Prize.

"Our role is to create an answer through the project, to take the risk of being an author, not a consultant. The author takes full responsibility for the risks inherent in the potential answer. We cannot, as architects, go back to the investor with a collection of information - as a consultant does - expecting him or her to take the risks of the decision." - Alejandro Aravena