Then Tom Pritzker, chair and president of the Hyatt Foundation, which bestows the prize, presented a medal to Aravena, (the award also comes with $100,000). In accepting Aravena explained that his firm, ELEMENTAL, was founded “as a Do Tank, not a Think Tank.” The architect said, “The power of architecture is to correct inequalities and improve the quality of life ” –and to do so “as a collective task” with many disciplines coming together. In vouching for the team process, he introduced his four partners in ELEMENTAL and thanked his wife and children for reminding him of the importance of every day life. He underscored his belief in a balanced life (“It’s an antidote to being too full of myself”), by recounting the emotional moment on a Saturday morning when he was at home with his family, and Pritzker executive director Martha Thorne called with the news that he had won the award.

The next evening, the Pritzker Prize and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Fund co-organized a panel discussion open to the public in UN Trusteeship Council Chamber. Moderated by Cathleen McGuigan, editor-in-chief of RECORD, the panel of Pritzker laureates responded to a question Aravena posed: What are the challenges ahead for the built environment? Richard Rogers, Glenn Murcutt, Christian de Portzamparc, Wang Shu, Renzo Piano, Jean Nouvel, and Aravena each came up with responses reflective of their particular work. Rogers worried that architects were becoming mere “decorators” adding, “We have to change the whole nature of the role of architecture” while Murcutt argued that social and religious prejudices posed the greatest challenge (he gave a moving description of his recent work designing a mosque in Australia). De Portzamparc spoke of the need to resist design that encourages enclaves and zones restricting interaction between different communities.

Aravena pointed out that the built environment is faced with the three S’s: “scale, speed, and scarcity, “which his work tries to mitigate. Wang Shu, addressing the tumultuous change in China, spoke of the importance of a sense of history, down to recycling materials from razed buildings. Piano advocated for the architect as “a civic poet,” and he encouraged the use of the “the pen you have in your hand, not computer simulation.” Murcutt agreed. “What is a city but a gallery of beautiful buildings? It’s not from handling the mouse—you  need the eye-hand connection in order to think.” And when asked what subject architects should study besides their own discipline, Murcutt answered, “Biology. Nature is the greatest teacher.”