The 2021 Pritzker Prize Winners Prove That Good Design Is Good for Everyone
Lacaton & Vassal designed this low-rise social housing project comprising 53 units.
https://www.dwell.com/article/2021-pritzker-architecture-prize-lacaton-vassal-6c019922
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassalthe 49th and 50th Pritzker Prize laureateshave contributed decades of sustainable and inclusive design.
Since establishing their firm, Lacaton & Vassal, in Paris in 1987, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have completed more than 30 projects throughout Europe and West Africa. Their body of work includes private and social housing, cultural and academic institutions, public spaces, and urban developmentsall of which are designed to benefit individuals and society as a whole.
"Good architecture is openopen to life, open to enhance the freedom of anyone, where anyone can do what they need to do," says Lacaton. "It should not be demonstrative or imposing, but it must be something familiar, useful, and beautiful, with the ability to quietly support the life that will take place within it."
The duo worked alongside architect Frédéric Druot to sensitively transform an outdated 1960s city housing project in France called La Tour Bois le Prêtre. Instead of razing the structure to begin anewLacaton and Vassal have a "never demolish" policythey stripped the original concrete facade and set about increasing the interior square footage of each unit. Living rooms now extend out to flexible terraces, and large windows provide residents with unrestricted views over the city.