Few contemporary architects understand the power of atmosphere quite like Smiljan Radić Clarke. Over the past three decades, the Chilean has built a body of work defined by austere, elemental forms made from raw materials such as concrete, timber, stone and glass.
While he resists the idea of a fixed architectural language, his projects share an unmistakable sensibility. They often appear rough-hewn or deliberately incomplete; while grounded, they can also be quite futuristic; and there is frequently a deep tie to the land.
Who is Smiljan Radić Clarke?
Radić Clarke first garnered international attention in 2014 for his Serpentine Pavilion – the prestigious annual commission in London. Otherwise, he’s spent almost the entirety of his career building a diverse body of work in his native land. Born in Santiago in 1965 to a family of English and Croatian heritage, he graduated from the city’s Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 1989, and founded his eponymous architectural practice in 1995.
His early work focused mainly on residential projects in Pacific or Andean resort towns. Then, he expanded into larger-scale cultural and public buildings, which often challenge perceptions of weight, light, and enclosure.
Winning the 2026 Pritzker Prize
Radić Clarke won the 2026 Pritzker Architecture Prize for what the jury described as his 'radical originality.' Suddenly, Chile held something rather unusual: the near-complete body of a laureate’s work. Unlike many past winners whose buildings are scattered globally, Radić Clarke’s portfolio remains overwhelmingly rooted within his small homeland, which hugs the west coast of South America.
Serpentine Pavilion 2014
In fact, visitors can explore most of his permanent works by taking an architectural pilgrimage between Santiago and the coastal city of Concepción, six hours south by car.
Chile tour through 6 key Smiljan Radić Clarke buildings
If you head out to Chile to explore the country's striking landscapes and exciting architectural scene, here are some key Radić Clarke buildings to look out for along the way.
Restaurant Mestizo
Where: Bicentenario Park, Santiago
When: 2006
One of Radić’ Clarke’s earlier public works is this partially submerged restaurant embedded into the northern edge of Santiago’s Bicentenario Park, in the high-end Vitacura neighbourhood. Its low-slung concrete pavilion offers welcome shade in a city famed for 300-plus days of annual sunshine. The pavilion also perfectly frames views of the Santiago skyline at dusk, while giant weight-bearing stones (sourced from a quarry in nearby Pirque) provide roof support. Diners come here for nouveau Chilean cuisine and frothy pisco sours.
Chile Before Chile
Where: Plaza de Armas, Santiago
Completed: 2013
The Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art enlisted Radić Clarke for an adaptive reuse project to extend the gallery space of its 200-year-old building (a formal Royal Customs house located off Santiago’s downtown Plaza de Armas). To keep the main structure intact, he inserted a minimalist 450-square-metre subterranean showroom made of concrete and clad in Amazonian wood. The eight-meter-high exhibition hall sits directly beneath the historic museum building and has the look of a dark vault. Lit mostly by a skylight on one end, it houses a permanent display of Indigenous artefacts found in present-day Chile, including pre-Incan textiles, Diaguitas pottery and Mapuche chemamüll totems.
NAVE
Where: Barrio Yungay, Santiago
Completed: 2015
Radić Clarke similarly worked within the confines of an existing building – in this case, an earthquake-damaged 20th-century residential property – to create NAVE, a cultural hub and artist residency in the historic Barrio Yungay neighbourhood. Set behind the old façade is a black box performance venue, rehearsal rooms, and workshop spaces. A long staircase leads up to a rooftop terrace with a whimsical canary-yellow circus tent, adding an additional al fresco event space in complete contrast to the dark setting below.
Viña Vik
Where: Cachapoal Valley
Completed: 2013
Two hours south of Santiago in a remote corner of the Cachapoal Valley is Radić Clarke’s most monumental project, Viña Vik, a collaboration with Norwegian billionaire Alexander Vik and his American wife Carrie. This state-of-the-art winery – which topped 2025’s list of The World’s 50 Best Vineyards – is completely embedded into Cachapoal’s rolling topography, stretching out laterally so as to be almost invisible on the horizon. 'I have always tried to build settings where others might discover emergent ideas,' Radić Clarke told the Pritzker jury of his design process. Guests enter the winery via a central causeway flanked on either side by a reflecting pool dotted with sculptural rock installations – almost like spilled marbles. The water isn’t just aesthetically pleasing; it actually cools the wine barrels in the tasting room below.
Teatro Regional del Biobío
Where: central Concepción
Completed: 2018
Continuing south and then west for another 4.5 hours, you reach the coastal city of Concepción, where Radić Clarke designed the six-storey Teatro Regional del Biobío, Chile’s largest regional theatre. While Viña Vik has an almost overwhelming sense of heaviness and weight, Teatro Regional del Biobío plays instead with transparency and light. The riverside cultural centre is wrapped in a translucent polycarbonate membrane mounted like a soft fabric over a steel frame, allowing it to glow at night, almost like a paper lantern. Radić Clarke said he wanted to break down the formality of traditional theatres, giving this one the sense of fragility that’s so often depicted on the stage. Inside is not only a 1,200-seat performance space, but also a 250-seat chamber hall and generous rehearsal rooms.
Centro Cívico Boca Sur
Where: San Pedro de la Paz, Concepción
Completed: 2017
A short drive away in the working-class suburb of San Pedro de la Paz sits one of Radić Clarke’s most ambitious social projects: a flexible civic centre – shaped through community consultation – combining a fire station, library, sports courts, playgrounds, market space and elevated walkways within a single public landscape. The project became a test of whether architecture alone can help repair fractured civic life in a vulnerable community. While its results have been mixed, the local municipality remains hopeful; it revamped and re-inaugurated the space in 2025.