pritzker prize awarded to chilean architect smiljan radić clarke

Chilean architect receives industry’s highest honor

Smiljan Radić Clarke has been named the 2026 laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the profession’s most widely recognized international honor. The announcement celebrates a body of work that invites people to experience architecture through atmosphere, material presence, and a sense of discovery.

Born in Santiago, Chile in 1965 and working there since establishing his studio in 1995, Radić has built a reputation for architecture that feels deeply personal and site-attentive. Across houses, cultural buildings, installations, and pavilions, his projects carry a sense of curiosity toward materials and landscape, often pairing rough stone, translucent surfaces, and elemental forms to shape spaces that feel both ancient and contemporary.

photo courtesy Smiljan Radić Clarke

Projects that balance fragility and monumentality

This Pritzker Prize award places architect Smiljan Radić Clarke among architecture’s most influential figures and marks another milestone for Chile’s design community. He becomes the second architect from the country to receive the honor, following Alejandro Aravena, who won the prize in 2016.

Radić’s work has long drawn attention for its distinctive sensibility. Projects such as the Vik Winery in Millahue, the extension to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art in Santiago, and the widely visited Serpentine Pavilion in London demonstrate an approach that balances fragility with monumental presence. In many cases, structures appear almost provisional, as though they arrived lightly within their landscapes.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, photo courtesy Iwan Baan (see designboom’s previous coverage here)

A humble response to global recognition

For the architect himself, the news came as a surprise. In a message following the announcement, Radić described the recognition as a ‘huge honor,’ adding with characteristic humility that the attention it brings may feel overwhelming at first.

The Pritzker jury highlighted the emotional dimension of his architecture and the way his buildings encourage reflection through spatial experience. Many of his projects offer moments of pause. Light filters through translucent skins, rough stone meets delicate structural elements, and interior spaces invite visitors to move slowly and look closely.

Guatero, photo courtesy Smiljan Radić