UN, Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate draw on urban planning to achieve Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDGF) and Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Alejandro Aravena draw on the role of architecture to improve livelihoods and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Architecture is closely related to the 11th goal of the SGD - "make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable," said Paloma Duran, director of Sustainable Development Goals Funds, UNDP, at a press briefing at the UN headquarters Tuesday.

"By 2030, almost 60 percent of the world's population will live in urban areas and 95 percent of the urban expansion in the next decade will take place in the developing world," she said.

"We need to work with architects to reduce poverty and inequality in the process of urbanization," she added.

Alejandro Aravena of Chile, winner of the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, answered questions at the press briefing. Alejandro has been recognized for his work in social housing.

On the issue of urban design and migration, Aravena stressed good public area design and "an open system that can channel people's own capacity to add to that system."

"The idea is to create a city that has an open system and can incorporate each individual's capacity," he said.

"Without such a system, it's not that people would stop coming to the cities. They will come anyhow but they will live in awful conditions," he added.

Aravena becomes the 41st laureate of the Pritzker Prize, the first Pritzker laureate from Chile, and the fourth from Latin America. The prize, often referred to as "architecture's Nobel", was established by the Pritzker family of Chicago through their Hyatt Foundation in 1979. Enditem