Chicago, Illinois, USA, March 16, 2021: Thomas Pritzker, President of the Hyatt Foundation, today announced that Anne Lacatón and Jean-Philippe Vassar from France have been awarded the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
"Good buildings should be open — open to life, open to people's freedom, so that anyone can do what they want to do in it." "It's not about showing anything or imposing it on others, it should be familiar, practical and aesthetically pleasing, and able to quietly support the daily life that happens in it," Lacatton said. ”
Through their designs of private homes, social housing, cultural and academic institutions, public spaces and urban developments, La caton and Vassar are in awe of existing buildings and re-examine their sustainability – they first take stock of what already exists when they conceive of a project. From the perspective of spatial abundance and freedom of use, they prioritize enriching human life, so that they can benefit individuals in three dimensions: social, ecological and economic, and contribute to the evolution of cities.
The jury reads: "They not only defined a method of architecture that renewed the heritage of modernism, but also proposed adjustments to the definition of the architectural profession itself. Their architectural works respond to the climatic and ecological emergencies and social dilemmas of our time, especially in the field of urban housing, and thus rekindle the hopes and dreams of modernist architects to improve the lives of the masses. They are as successful as they are because of their strong perception of the spaces and materials that make up the building, their convictions as strong as their forms, and their aesthetics as clear as their ethics. ”
About Anne Lacatón and Jean-Philippe Vassar
Anne Lacatón (b. Saint-Pardou, France, 1955) and Jean-Philippe Vassar (b. Casablanca, Morocco, 1954) are the 49th and 50th laureates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize for their continued and outstanding contributions to human society and human settlements. Anne Lacatón is also the first French female architect to receive this award.
The French-based architectural firm responded to the climate and ecological emergencies and social dilemmas of the era through the design of private residences, social housing, cultural and academic institutions, public spaces and urban development schemes, especially in the field of urban housing, rekindling the hopes and dreams of modernist architects to improve the lives of the masses. Adhering to the precept of "never demolish", La caton and Vassar intervened in moderation, preserving the building's enduring qualities while upgrading outdated infrastructure.
530 apartments © Laurian Ghinitoiu
Anne Lacatón and Jean-Philippe Vassar met in the late 1970s during their formal architecture education at the National School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Bordeaux, France. In Niger's capital, Niamey, Lacaton and Vasar built their first collaborative project, a grass hut made of locally sourced shrub branches, which stood still in the wind for two years after completion and produced amazing results. They vowed never to destroy anything that could be saved, and to make what already existed last longer. They founded Lacaton & Vassal in Paris in 1987 and have completed more than 30 projects in europe and West Africa.
Grass hut ©Lacaton & Vassal
With the help of winter gardens and balconies, the two architects have greatly increased the living space at a low cost, enabling the occupants to save energy and get close to nature all year round. The Latapie House (Floislac, France, 1993) was their first application of greenhouse technology, with a winter garden built to create a larger living space at a modest budget. Retractable transparent polycarbonate panels facing east at the back of the house allow natural light to illuminate the entire home, expanding the indoor common space from the living room to the kitchen, making the indoor climate easy to control. A similar framework applies to another project they collaborated with Drouvo, Christophe Hutin – the renovation of three buildings (numbers G, H and I) consisting of 530 apartments in the Grand Park (Bordeaux, France, 2017).
Radapine Residence ©Philippe Ruault
530 apartments ©Laurian Ghinitoiu
They rebalanced dormant or inefficient rooms in a bid to provide open spaces that could accommodate more activities and meet changing demands, remodeled the Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France, 2012), and after restoring this space built more than a decade ago, the museum interior area was increased by 20,000 square meters, including a portion of the newly built underground space, and ensured that each area of the building was preserved for the user experience. In the Dunkirk Waterfront Redevelopment Project, Prefabricated Workshop 2 (AP2) was a post-war shipbuilding factory on the coastline, and instead of filling all the space and losing the building blank, the architects chose to copy a building of the same shape and volume as it, and the two could operate independently or work together. They are connected together by an internal channel located between the gaps in the two structures. In the design of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nantes (Nantes, France, 2009), the architect embodies the freedom of use of space.
The Palace of ©Tokyo Philippe Ruault
Philippe Ruault, Ecole ©Supérieure des Nadir et Des Nadirs
Their ongoing work includes a residential renovation project that turns a hospital in Paris, France, into 138 mid-rise apartments; a mid-rise building with 80 apartments in Anderlecht, Belgium; an office building renovation in Paris, France; a multi-purpose building in Toulouse, France, that provides hotel and commercial space; and a 40-apartment midsize building in Hamburg, Germany, for private residences.