Smiljan Radić wins Pritzker Architecture Prize 2026
Breaking news: Chilean architect Smiljan Radić has been announced as the 2026 Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate for his buildings that are "immediately recognizable, yet conceptually evasive".
Radić, who established his practice Smiljan Radić Clarke in Chile in 1995, was revealed today as the 55th winner of the award, which is considered the most significant in the architecture field.
This year's jury, chaired by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, praised 61-year-old Radić for his experimentation and work that embraces something fundamental about the human condition.
Radić's work offers "quietly joyful shelter"
"Through a body of work positioned at the crossroads of uncertainty, material experimentation, and cultural memory, Smiljan Radić favours fragility over any unwarranted claim to certainty," said the jury citation.
"His buildings appear temporary, unstable, or deliberately unfinished – almost on the point of disappearance – yet they provide a structured, optimistic and quietly joyful shelter, embracing vulnerability as an intrinsic condition of lived experience."
The jury compared Radić's work to "the perception of time", stating that it is hard to describe the qualities of his architecture using words.
"To render the qualities of his architectural work in spoken language is intrinsically difficult, for in his designs he works with dimensions of experience that are immediately palpable but escape verbalization – like the perception of time itself: immediately, yet conceptually evasive," the citation continued.
"His buildings are not conceived simply as visual artifacts; rather, they demand embodied presence."
Radić graduated from the Catholic University of Chile in 1989 and, through his eponymous studio, has become best known for both his conceptual residential architecture and pavilion design.
In 2014, he was commissioned to design the vaunted Serpentine Pavilion, opting for an enclosed, semi-translucent design that resembled a boulder.
His most recognisable work is arguably a black house created between 2010 and 2012, named House for the Poem of the Right Angle.
Based on a painting series by French architect Le Corbusier, the house is enclosed in a dramatic woodland in Vilches, Chile, and features protruding skylights and monitor windows.
However, despite the almost spooky facade, an interior courtyard and light wood detailing made the house seem surprisingly expansive.
This structure demonstrates Radić's commitment to the tension between the imposing exterior of architecture and the more delicate nature of the people who experience it.
Reflecting on his win, Radić said he aims for his work to "carry emotional presence".
"Architecture exists between large, massive, and enduring forms – structures that stand under the sun for centuries, waiting for our visit, and smaller, fragile constructions, fleeting as the life of a fly, often without a clear destiny under conventional light," said Radić.
"Within this tension of disparate times, we strive to create experiences that carry emotional presence, encouraging people to pause and reconsider a world that so often passes them by with indifference."
Prize announcement briefly delayed
In recent years, Radić has worked on increasingly larger scales. In 2018, he designed the Teatro Regional del Bíobío in Concepción, Chile, alongside architects Eduardo Castillo and Gabriela Medrano.
This structure featured a PTFE laid over a zigzagging concrete structure.
His use of simple materials and gables, as in his Prism House + Terrace Room residence, has informed many other contemporary Chilean projects.
Beyond architecture proper, his work has featured in the fashion world. In 2021, Radić designed an inflatable transparent bubble for a runway show by fashion brand Alexander McQueen.
Radić is married to the sculptor Marcela Correa, with whom he has collaborated in the past.
In 2017, he founded the Fundación de Arquitectura Frágil to promote experimental architecture.
Other honours awarded to Radić include the Arnold W Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2018 and the Grand Prize at the Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito in 2022.
He is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
The timing of today's announcement came as a surprise to many due to the ongoing controversy surrounding the prize, after revelations that the Pritzker Foundation's director, Tom Pritzker, heavily featured in the email cache relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In late February, the Pritzker Foundation, which administers the prize, announced the award would be delayed.
The prize was established in 1979 by Tom Pritzker's father, Jay Pritzker, of the Hyatt Hotel Corporation, from which Tom Pritzker resigned following the revelations.
However, the prize's relevance remains clear.
Last year, the prize was won by Chinese architect Liu Jiakun.
Top photo courtesy of Priztker Architecture Prize.
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