Lacaton and Vassal win 2021 Pritzker Prize

Jury citation

Anne Lacaton和Jean-Philippe Vassal的作品反映了建筑的民主精神。通过他们的想法、专业的方法以及由此产生的建筑，他们已经证明了对修复性建筑的承诺，即同时具有技术、创新和生态响应，可以追求而不怀旧。这是安妮•拉卡顿(Anne Lacaton)和让-菲利普•瓦萨尔(Jean-Philippe Vassal)团队自1987年在巴黎创立公司以来的口头禅。他们不仅定义了一种更新现代主义遗产的建筑方法，而且还提出了一种调整后的建筑职业定义。现代主义者希望和梦想改善许多人的生活，通过他们的工作，响应我们时代的气候和生态紧急情况，以及社会紧急情况，特别是在城市住房领域。他们通过强大的空间感和材料来实现这一点，创造出的建筑在形式和信念上都是强大的，在美学和伦理上都是透明的。它们既美观又实用，拒绝任何建筑质量、环境责任和对道德社会的追求之间的对立。

30多年来，他们对建筑的批判性方法体现了空间、理念、使用和手段、材料以及形状和形式的慷慨。这种方法产生了住宅、文化、教育和商业建筑的创新项目。从他们早期的项目开始，包括波尔多的私人住宅Latapie House，以及圣德尼的人文科学中心或南特建筑学院的市政工程，他们向建筑的使用者展示了敏感性和温暖的体验。建筑师表示，当人们在建筑中感觉良好时，当建筑内部的光线是美丽的，空气是宜人的，当建筑内部和外部之间有轻松的流动时，建筑就是美丽的。

The notion of belonging and being accountable to a larger whole involves not only fellow humans but the planet in general. From very early on, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have consistently expanded the notion of sustainability to be understood as a real balance between its economic, environmental and social pillars. Their work has delivered through a variety of projects that actively address responsibility in these three dimensions.

这种实践以发现的过程开始每一个项目，其中包括密切观察和发现已经存在的价值。在1996年委员会的案例中，Léon Aucoc广场，他们的方法是简单地进行最小的工作，更换砾石，处理石灰树，并略微修改交通，所有这些都赋予了现有的潜力。

In their housing projects for the transformation of the Paris block, Tour Bois le Prêtre, and three blocks in the Grand Parc neighborhood in Bordeaux (both realized with Frederic Druot), instead of demolition and reconstruction they carefully added space to the existing buildings in the form of generous extensions, winter gardens and balconies that allow for freedom of use and therefore are supportive of the real lives of the residents. There is a humility in the approach that respects the aims of the original designers and the aspirations of the current occupants.

For the cultural center, FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkirk, they chose to keep the original hall and attach a second one of similar dimensions to the existing building. Absent is nostalgia for the past. Rather, they seek transparency, openness, and luminosity with a respect for the inherited and a quest to act responsibly in the present. Today, a building that previously went unnoticed becomes an iconic element in a renewed cultural and natural landscape.

Source: Pritzker Prize

Biography

Anne Lacaton (1955, Saint-Pardoux, France) and Jean-Philippe Vassal (1954, Casablanca, Morocco) met in the late 1970s during their formal architecture training at École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage de Bordeaux. Lacaton went on to pursue a Masters in Urban Planning from Bordeaux Montaigne University (1984), while Vassal relocated to Niger, West Africa to practice urban planning. Lacaton often visited Vassal, and it was there that the genesis of their architectural doctrine began, as they were profoundly influenced by the beauty and humility of sparing resources within the country’s desert landscapes.

“Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the people are so incredible, so generous, doing nearly everything with nothing, finding resources all the time, but with optimism, full of poetry and inventiveness. It was really a second school of architecture,” recalls Vassal.

In Niamey, Niger, Lacaton and Vassal built their first joint project, a straw hut, constructed with locally sourced bush branches, which yielded surprising impermanence, relenting to the wind within two years of completion. They vowed to never demolish what could be redeemed and instead, make sustainable what already exists, thereby extending through addition, respecting the luxury of simplicity, and proposing new possibilities.

They established Lacaton & Vassal in Paris (1987), and have since demonstrated boldness through their design of new buildings and transformative projects. For over three decades, they have designed private and social housing, cultural and academic institutions, public space, and urban strategies. The duo’s architecture reflects their advocacy of social justice and sustainability, by prioritizing a generosity of space and freedom of use through economical and ecological materials.

Providing physical and emotional wellbeing has also been intentional in their work. Their application of greenhouse technologies to create bioclimatic conditions began with Latapie House in Floirac, France (1993). Using the sun, in harmony with natural ventilation, solar shading and insulation, they created adjustable and desirable microclimates. “From very early on, we studied the greenhouses of botanic gardens with their impressive fragile plants, the beautiful light and transparency, and ability to simply transform the outdoor climate. It’s an atmosphere and a feeling, and we were interested in bringing that delicacy to architecture,” shares Lacaton.

Through both new construction and the transformation of buildings, honoring the pre-existing is authentic to their work. A private residence in Cap Ferret, France (1998) was built on an undeveloped plot along Arcachon Bay, with the goal of minimal disruption to the natural environment. Rather than fell the 46 trees on the site, the architects nurtured the native vegetation, elevating the home and constructing around the trunks that intersected it, allowing occupants to live among the plant life.

拉卡顿解释说:“如果你花时间和精力仔细观察，既存的东西是有价值的。事实上，这是一个观察的问题，是一个用新鲜的眼光、注意力和精确度来接近一个地方的问题，去理解它的价值和缺失，看看我们如何在保持现有价值的同时改变现状。”

他们巧妙地选择适中的材料，使建筑师能够以经济实惠的方式建造更大的生活空间，这一点在法国穆尔豪斯的14个社会住房开发的单户住宅(2005年)和尼珀特花园(2015年)的低层公寓楼中的59个单元的建设中得到了证明;以及位于法国Chalon-sur-Saône的由96个单元组成的中高层建筑(2016);等等。

在他们的职业生涯中，建筑师拒绝了要求拆除社会住房的城市规划，而是专注于从内到外的设计，优先考虑建筑居民的福利和他们对更大空间的一致愿望。与Frédéric Druot和Christophe Hutin一起，他们(2017年)改造了法国波尔多Grand Parc的三座建筑中的530个单元，以升级技术功能，但更值得注意的是，为每个单元增加了宽敞灵活的空间，在施工期间不需要迁移居民，同时为居住者保持租金稳定。“我们从不认为存在问题。我们以积极的眼光看待，因为我们有机会利用现有的资源做更多的事情，”拉卡顿说。“我们去了那些建筑物可能会被拆除的地方，我们遇到了一些人，一些家庭，即使情况不是很好，但他们仍然眷恋着自己的住房。他们最常反对拆迁的原因是他们希望留在自己的社区。这是一个善良的问题，”瓦萨尔继续说。

Current works in progress include the housing transformations of a former hospital into a 138-unit, mid-rise apartment building in Paris, France, and an 80-unit, mid-rise building in Anderlecht, Belgium; the transformation of an office building in Paris, France; mixed-use buildings offering hotel and commercial space in Toulouse, France; and a 40-unit, private housing, mid-rise building in Hamburg, Germany.

“Good architecture is a space where something special happens, where you want to smile, just because you are there,” shares Vassal. “It is also a relationship with the city, a relationship with what you see, and a place where you are happy, where people feel well and comfortable—a space that gives emotions and pleasures.”

Lacaton is an associate professor of Architecture and Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland, since 2017), and a visiting professor at Polytechnic University of Madrid, Master in Housing (Madrid, Spain, since 2007). She has been a visiting professor at Delft University of Technology (Delft, Netherlands, 2016–2017) and Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm (Nürnberg, Germany, 2014); was the Design Critic in Architecture (2015) and the Kenzo Tange Visiting Chair in Architecture and Urban Planning (2011) at Harvard Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, MA); and the Clarkson Chair at the University of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY, 2013). She served on the LafargeHolcim Awards jury for Europe (2017) and will be a member of the 2021 jury later this year.

Vassal is an associate professor at Universität der Künste Berlin (Berlin, Germany since 2012) and has previously taught at Technische Universität Berlin (Berlin, Germany, 2007–10); Peter Behrens School of Arts at the University of Applied Sciences (Dusseldorf, Germany, 2005); École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles (Versailles, France, 2002–2006); and École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage de Bordeaux (1992–99). He was head of the jury for LafargeHolcim Awards, Europe (2014) and a juror (2008 & 2011).

Together, they have held visiting professorships at Sassari University in Alghero (Alghero, Italy, 2014–2015); the Pavilion Neuize OBC-Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France, 2013–14); and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne, Switzerland, 2010–11). Lacaton and Vassal are the recipients of the BDA Grand Prize, 2020; Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, Cité de l’Architecture & du Patrimoine, 2018, with Druot; Académie d’Architecture, Gold Medal, 2016; the Heinrich Tessenow Medal, 2016; the Rolf Schock Prize, Visual Arts, 2014; Daylight & Building Components Award, Villum Foundation and Velux Foundation, 2011; the International Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects, 2009; the Grand Prix National d’Architecture, France, 2008; and the Schelling Architecture Award, 2006.

Their practice, Lacaton & Vassal, has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, Trienal de Lisboa (2016); and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (2019) along with Frédéric Druot Architecture and Christophe Hutin Architecture for the transformation of 530 Dwellings at Grand Parc, Bordeaux.

Joint publications includefreespace(Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal, on the occasion of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, 2018),The Incidents. Freedom of Use(Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Sternberg Press, 2015),PLUS: Large Scale Housing Development. An Exceptional Casewith Druot (Editorial Gustavo Gili, SL, 2007), andIl fera beau demain(Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal, Institut Français d’Architecture, 1995).

他们在法国巴黎工作和居住。

Source: Pritzker Prize