On scarcity: Is half of the house enough? Thoughts on the Pritzker Prize laureate Alejandro Aravena

Abstract

This article proposes a political agenda for a disciplinary trespassing against capitalist rule drawing upon the reasons that worthed a Pritzker award and the curative job in Venice Biennale for Alejandro Aravena. In both cases, the institutions argued that Aravena embodies a social architect with an agenda oriented to aid people living on scarcity. Along the article are revealed the ideological nature of these nominations and it exposes the necessity for emancipating architecture from the subjugation to profitability, capital accumulation, and power's reproduction. The subjugation to capital has destroyed the creative nature of the discipline, triggering a crisis whose release may be tackled through more theory, collective organization, and exploring new modes of production. The article claims for leaving the comfort zone for embracing the radicalism as a possible path toward disciplinary liberation.