Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have never demolished a building to build a new building.
The French architects, based in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, believe that every structure can be reused, rediscovered and revamped. Now, after 34 years of living out the approach, they have won the highest honor of their field: the Pritzker Prize.
“Through their ideas, approach to the profession and the resulting buildings,” the jury said in its quotation, “they have proven that a commitment to a restorative architecture that is technologically, innovatively and ecologically responsive can be pursued without nostalgia. word. “
In a joint telephone interview, Lacaton and Vassal said they had not been opposed to it for a long time.
“There are too many slopes of existing buildings that are not old, and that still have a life ahead of them, that have not been used outside,” said Lacaton, 65. ‘We think it’s too big a waste of material. If we observe carefully, if we look at things with fresh eyes, there is always something positive to take out of an existing situation. ‘
Vassal, 67, said they even built a building around a forest once, always making sure to integrate the natural landscape and preserve the past. “Never demolish, never cut down a tree, and never pick out a row of flowers,” he said. “Take care of the memory of things that were there, and listen to the people who live there.”
This philosophy is evident in their projects, such as their expansion of the Palais de Tokyo in 2012 in Paris. By digging into the basement with raw, minimalist materials, the architects transformed the remains of the 1937 World’s Fair into what is said to be the largest museum of contemporary art in Europe that has not been collected.
Similarly, the architects – in collaboration with Frédéric Druot – expanded the floorboards to enlarge the rooms, with balconies and conservatories, with the upgrading of the 1960s house project Tour Bois-le-Prêtre.
“Architecture can become more and more about technology, more and more complex, more and more based on regulations, and we try to avoid it all,” Vassal said, adding that the pair prefer “to work with very simple elements – air, sun – for which we do not have to pay. ”
The housing project was featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “Small Scale, Big Change” in 2010 and won the best architectural award from this design magazine.
In The New York Times, Michael Kimmelman praised it as a case study in architectural ingenuity and civic rejuvenation.
“It’s also a challenge for urban innovators,” Kimmelman wrote. “Instead of replacing the old tower with a completely new building, the designers saw what was worthwhile with the existing architecture, and added it as well.”
Lacaton and Vassal said they emphasize freedom as well as function – and leave spaces undefined, enabling tenants to be resourceful.
Sometimes they are amazed at the new customs that residents come up with. For example, when the architects expected a greenhouse to be filled with plants, the residents used it rather as a living area with armchairs and tables.
“When we thought it could be a place for nature, it was a place for activities,” Vassal said. “This place could be used 50 percent of the time and is actually used 90 percent of the time.”
Not only do their projects appear to be cheaper and more environmentally sustainable, but they also prevent the residents from being relocated during construction. In 2017, the architects – with Druot and Christophe Hutin – were able to transform and expand 530 apartments in the Grand Parc area of Bordeaux without residents having to leave their homes.
In their public commissions, Lacaton and Vassal also deliberately leave spaces unstructured so that the inhabitants can determine the customs themselves. To a massive six-storey cultural center for a local art collection, FRAC Dunkirk (2013), the architects attached a second hall that reflects the original, so that it can be used as an extension of the existing building or as’ a separate independent environment.
“This is a place where the most interesting exhibits have finally taken place,” Lacaton said of the addition, “where visitors are more relaxed and have a different relationship with the artwork.”
At their Nantes School of Architecture (2014) on the banks of the Loire River, the team has created flexible areas of varying sizes that can be demarcated over time.
‘The extra space, in addition to the classroom, provides space for many different uses, such as a small table tennis court for a week or a large workshop, or it becomes a TV studio, ‘Lacaton said. “We have a kind of rule that when we start the project, our goal is to design as much extra space as possible.”
“We have a strong faith in people,” she continued. “We believe people can be creative if they are given the space to do so.”
Vassal added: “If the people inside feel comfortable, feel happy, have the opportunity to be alone or look at the clouds, it is this moment that creates architecture.”
The design of affordable housing has always been of paramount importance, the architects said, because quality is often sacrificed and the results are not standard. Through the use of simple designs and basic materials, they challenged the idea that spacious space and limited funds are not compatible.
It’s not about value engineering – reducing certain elements to lower the cost of the whole – the architects said. Instead, it’s about what Lacaton described as ‘an attitude of careful observation’: researching a website before trying to print it quickly, researching what might work before focusing on what needs to be corrected.
A home can seem “ugly or boring” to some, Vassal explained. But look inside and you might find a lady offering you cake and coffee. Behind these rooms there is life. ”
The architects said the pandemic confirmed the importance the houses place on homes. With people being forced to spend most of their time at home, ‘we see how important it is to think about everyday circumstances,’ Lacaton said.
In some cases, printing it involves very little intervention. For Léon Aucoc Plaza in 1996, the jury said: “their approach was to do the minimal work to replace the gravel, treat the lime trees and adjust the traffic slightly, to renew everything that already exists.”
They met at the School of Architecture in Bordeaux in the late 1970s, after which they worked for five years in Niger in sub-Saharan Africa. “The desert for us was really like a second school,” Vassal said. It was there that they learned what he calls a ‘poetic approach’ – how to create shade with elemental materials such as wood and fabric. “It was a very important experience,” he said, “and we still have it in mind.”
Their practice is small – about ten people, including the two. Yet it has completed more than 30 projects across Europe and West Africa, including a multi-purpose theater in Lille (2013) and a residential and office building in Geneva (2020).
The architects draw inspiration from their environment, Lacaton said. ‘The observation of everyday life, of places that are already there, of buildings built by others, old or modern, meetings, books.
“This unlimited accumulation of images, emotions and memories forms fragments of spaces that we memorize,” she added, “and that we would like to gather, mix, adapt and reassemble to design and invent each new project.”
Some architects have a clear signature – you can often recognize a building designed by other Pritzker laureates. But Vassal and Lacaton said they initially did not care what a project would eventually look like. Instead, they said, they design from the inside out and focus on the purpose or use of a space; confident that the process will yield a substantially satisfactory result.
“We are not looking for an aesthetic,” Vassal said. ‘This idea that aesthetics is the result of the creation process is not something we should think about at the outset. We think that beauty always happens at the end. ”