N. 232 Smiljan Radić 2019 2025

Presentation

Smiljan Radić Clarke (Santiago, Chile, 1965) graduated from the Catholic University of Chile in 1989 and pursued further studies at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Italy. After three years of travel and exploration, he founded his own architecture studio in Chile in 1995.

He has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout his career. In 2001, he was named Best Architect Under 35 by the Chilean Architects’ Association. In 2008, he received the Architectural Record Design Vanguard Award, and in 2009, he was named an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects In 2013. He was recognised for his professional achievement, and his projects were selected as the best Chilean buildings in 2015 and 2018 by the Universidad Mayor. In 2015, he received the Oris Award in Croatia. In 2018, he was honoured with the prestigious Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. That same year, his Bío Bío Theatre was nominated as one of the Best Buildings of 2018 by Architectural Record. In 2020, he received the Attolini Medal from Anáhuac University in Mexico and he was named an honorary member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 2022, he received the Gran Premio at the Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito, Ecuador.

Radić currently lives and works in Chile. His work ranges from small, delicate structures, such as the extension of the Charcoal Burner's House in Alhué, Chile (1999), the Bus Stop in Krumbach, Austria (2010), and the Vatican Chapels Pavilion in Venice, Italy (2018); to domestic-scale buildings like Cooper House 2 in Talca (2005), Pite House in Papudo (2007), and House for the Poem of the Right Angle in Vilches (2014). The complete archive of the latter was acquired in 2015 by the Architecture and Design Department of MoMA in New York. Other relevant works in Chile include Restaurant Mestizo in Santiago (2007) and NAVE, a performing arts space, also in Santiago (2014). Notable international designs include the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (2014) and the Alexander McQueen flagship store (2018), both in London. His medium-scale projects encompass the Civic Neighbourhoods in Concepción (2000), the extension of the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art in Santiago (2014), the VIK Winery in Millahue (2014), and the Bío Bío Theatre (2018).

Additionally, he has won several international architecture competitions, such as the Bío Bío Regional Theatre in 2012, with Eduardo Castillo and Gabriela Medrano; the Santiago Telecommunications Tower (2014); the Chilean Pavilion at Expo Dubai (2019), with Paula Velasco and Cecilia Puga; the Secret Garden for the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in the Hague (2023), with Marcela Correa; and the design for the Multifunctional Palace and Renovation of the Palace of Telecommunications at Fira Barcelona (2025), with Miquel Marina, César Rueda and Beatriz Borque.

Radić has shown his work internationally in exhibitions, installations and pavilions. Some of the most notable instances include "Global Ends" at Gallery MA, Tokyo (2010); The Boy Hidden in a Fish, with Marcela Correa, at the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale (2010); An Orange Noise at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Hiroshima (2012); The Wardrobe and the Mattress at the Hermès Gallery in Tokyo (2013); "Ilustraciones", with Alejandro Luer, at Galería AFA, Santiago (2013); "Smiljan Radic Works" at Gallery MA, Tokyo, (2016); The House for the Poem of the Right Angle as part of the "Endless House" exhibition at MoMa in New York (2016); "Bestiary" at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in České Budějovice, Czech Republic (2017); "Ready-Mades Belong to Everyone" at the Swiss Institute in New York (2018); Drops, for the Lungomare Art Programme on the island of Krk, Croatia (2020), with Marcela Correa; London Sky Bubble in England (2021); and Guatero at the XXII Chilean Architecture and Urbanism Biennial (2023).

Smiljan Radić is also the president of the Fundación de Arquitectura Frágil, an organisation dedicated to promoting the study and dissemination of experimental architecture, or that of an Improbable Reality, in which the boundaries of the architectural discipline are blurred. Under the umbrella of this foundation, he has organised seminars and exhibitions such as "Other People Have Dogs" at Galería D21 in Santiago (2017), in collaboration with the Fundació Miralles from Barcelona; "Cloud '68: Paper Voices", in collaboration with Hans Ulrich Obrist at ETH Zurich (2017) and then in Santiago (2018); and "Tiras de Prueba", which opened to the public in October 2025 at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago.

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Contents

PDF Index

Texts

Some Preliminary Words
Smiljan Radić

How to Carry the World on One's Back
Conversation between Smiljan Radić and Christian Kerez

Pavilion
Enrique Walker

Works and Projects

On Sale PDFs