As I've said before, I'm fascinated by architecture. It's not just how it was built and who built it, but also the story behind the story behind the building. The saying "If walls could talk" gets me every time because there have been many times that I wish they could talk because I know that the stories that they could tell would be simply surreal.

But back to the conference. When Alejandro Aravena and began his presentation you could almost feel the pull he had on the audience. It wasn't just his confidence and passion in what he does, but also the sincerity in his spirit to help people to grow in life.

Aravena is the principle at Alejandro Aravena Architects and he is the founder of Elemental. What is interesting to note is that both these companies serve different means and subsequently show precisely the kind of architect that he is. Alejandro Aravena Architects serve the more commercial market focusing on the design of buildings that will be used for residence, retail or office space. Elemental is based more in the foundation of finding solutions to various social housing issues and to counter the problem.

I'm not going to touch on the commercial, but on the social housing because the solution that Aravena offered up was simply startling. He spoke of the project to create low cost housing in Chile and the solution he presented was not one of charity, but one of quality. He explained that instead of simply giving the house to the people, you create the most important part of the house and you allow the rest to be done by the people.

So… he came to the conclusion that if you give people the one thing they can't do and that would be create structure or the first 50% of the house and probably the most expensive, then those that move into the house would create the rest and in this way, you are allowing them to make their house into a home and giving them a sense of power

I won't lie, the solution seems so plausible and understandable that I couldn't help but stare somewhat amazed. It can't possibly be that simple, right? But it is.

So that's what I'm leaving you with and you can think about it. Just give it a few moments and you'll see how brilliant it is. And if you don't, then visit his website and read up about it at www.elementalchile.cl

Aravena says that design needs to be precise and irreducible and he's sticking to exactly that.