Lacaton & Vassal is an architecture agency founded by Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal in 1987. Their projects include private and social housing, cultural and academic institutions and public spaces. They are particularly well known for their transformations of existing social housing structures and for their economical use of materials and construction techniques.
Lacaton and Vassal met while they were architecture students. Their first joint project out of architecture school was in Niamey, Niger, where they built a straw hut out of locally sourced bush branches. The building proved to be highly impermanent; it was dismembered by the wind within 2 years of its construction.[1]
More detailed biographies of the two partners follow:
Anne Lacaton was born on 2 August 1955 in Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière in the Dordogne region of France. She graduated from the École nationale supérieure d'architecture et de paysage de Bordeaux in 1980 and obtained a master's degree in urban planning at the University of Bordeaux III in 1984.[2] From 1982 to 1988, she worked as a researcher and architect for the laboratory and the educational workshop of Arc en rêve center for architecture in Bordeaux.
Jean-Philippe Vassal was born on 22 February 1954 in Casablanca, Morocco. After graduating from the École nationale supérieure d'architecture et de paysage de Bordeaux in 1980, he relocated to Niger, West Africa, where he worked as an architect-urban planner from 1980 to 1985. Recalling his experiences in Niger, Vassal said:[1]
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.
The two partners founded Lacaton & Vassal in Bordeaux in 1987.
Approaches to architecture
According to the Pritzker prize biography, Lacaton often visited Vassal while he was working in Niger and it was there that they first formulated the philosophy of architecture that was to guide them throughout their careers: "...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."[1] Their aim in prioritising renovation over demolition is to give a "second life" to existing buildings, especially in the area of social housing.[3] Lacaton states: "We never see the existing as a problem. We look with positive eyes because there is an opportunity of doing more with what we already have."[1]
The citation of the Pritzker Prize jury lauds the architects' "restorative architecture" and describes their practice of beginning "every project with a process of discovery which includes intensely observing and finding value in what already exists... There is a humility in the approach that respects the aims of the original designers and the aspirations of the current occupants."[1]
The Pritzker Prize jury also notes that, via their humble approach to the practice of architecture, Lacaton and Vassal have reset the very idea of what it means to be an architect.[1] Their role is not to produce extravagant objects or to make flamboyant architectural statements — rather, the architect observes, improves and serves the needs of individuals and the community in a cost effective and sustainable way.
Major projects
With the Latapie house[4] (1993 in Floirac), Lacaton & Vassal applied greenhouse technologies to create a private winter garden that expanded the living space of a house at relatively low cost. The house is an example of their use of inexpensive building techniques from industry or agriculture. Indeed, greenhouses or winter gardens would become a recurring feature of their projects. Lacaton states: "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."[1]
Lacaton & Vassal has also been successful in both defending and improving the image of social housing with the Cité Manifeste[5] in Mulhouse. The Cité Manifest was an ambitious project involving several well known architectural firms and marking the 150th anniversary of the construction of the Cité Muller, the first workers' housing estate in France. Lacaton & Vassal's objective for this project was to produce quality housing (they delivered 14 low income apartments) which, at equal cost, would be much larger than the apartments typically offered in social housing. An analysis conducted well after the 2005 delivery of the project shows that 10 of the 14 apartments had surface areas that were 50 per cent larger than was typical for low income houses with the same number of rooms.[6] They also provided improved floor plans and amenities (large open-plan volumes, winter gardens, customizable facilities). This project was awarded the national label ‘Remarkable Contemporary Architecture’ in July 2015.[7]
Lacaton & Vassal began design work on the Architecture School of Nantes[8] (L’école nationale supérieure d'architecture de Nantes), a project that was completed in 2009. Here, the areas dedicated to the functions of the school (classrooms, administration, etc.) are juxtaposed with 5,500 square meters of floor space whose functions are not predetermined -- they can be redeployed, according to the needs of the moment.[3]
The Bois-le-Prêtre tower,[9] giving directly onto the ring road in northern Paris, is a low income housing development built in the 1960s. Lacaton & Vassal, working with Frédéric Druot, completed renovation of the building in 2010. Without moving the occupants from the building, the architects added space to all the apartments of the complex by grafting on to the structure a series of balconies and winter gardens. In addition to improving luminosity and thermal performance, the surface area of the building went from 8,900 square meters to 12,460 square meters. In November 2011, the project received the most prestigious French architectural award, the Equerre d'argent.[3][10]
The FRAC Grand Large[11] is a regional museum of contemporary art. Lacaton & Vassal were asked in 2013 to install the museum in a large boathouse in the port of Dunkirk. Their approach to this project was to preserve the original building in its entirety and to build a twin building that houses the museum. The original building is now available to be used either in conjunction with the museum or for other public purposes.[3]
Lacaton & Vassal were project managers for the redevelopment of the art déco-style Palais de Tokyo[12] (a modern art museum in western Paris). In two phases (2003 and 2014), they rehabilitated 14,000 square meters of usable space, essentially by eliminating partitions and false ceilings. The renovation improves the luminosity and the flow through the space, while also revealing the béton brut (unfinished concrete) of the original 1937 construction.[3]
More recognition
Lacaton & Vassal was nominated in 1997 for the 5th prize of the European Union for contemporary architecture Mies-van-der-Rohe in Barcelona.
They received the national grand prize for Young Talent architecture, from the Ministry of Culture, in 1999; almost ten years later, they won the 2008 Grand Prix National de l'Architecture.
Transformation de la tour Bois-le-Prêtre, Paris (2009); Équerre d'argent 2011
Aménagement des friches du Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012)
FRAC Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Dunkerque (2013)
Le Grand Sud, polyvalent hall, Lille (2013)
GHI-Quartier du Grand Parc: transformation of 3 towers that had been slated for demolition, Bordeaux (2016)
Related Research Articles
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.” Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation. It is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes, and is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture.
The year 1997 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
The year 1999 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Christian de Portzamparc is a French architect and urbanist.
The Palais de Tokyo is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to the City of Paris, and hosts the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. The western wing belongs to the French state and since 2002, has hosted the Palais de Tokyo / Site de création contemporaine, the largest museum in France dedicated to temporary exhibitions of contemporary art.
Dietmar Feichtinger is an Austrian architect established since 1989 in Paris.
The Prix d'architecture de l'Équerre d'argent is a French architecture award. This prize was launched in 1960 by "Architecture Française" magazine and its director Michel Bourdeau.
Benedetta Tagliabue is an Italian architect, who lives and works in Barcelona, Spain. Tagliabue was born in Milan, Italy. She graduated from the Istituto Universitaria di Architettura di Venezia in 1989. She is an internationally renowned architect founder with Enric Miralles (1955–2000) of the international studio EMBT Architects, with offices in Barcelona (HQ), Shanghai, and Paris. She is renowned for her attentiveness to context, yet experimental, approach to forms and materials in her creations. Her Barcelona-based company EMBT has become one of the most renowned Spanish practices of the 21st century as a result of her varied and intricate works.
Jean Nouvel is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l'Architecture, France’s first labor union for architects. He has obtained a number of prestigious distinctions over the course of his career, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005 and the Pritzker Prize in 2008. A number of museums and architectural centres have presented retrospectives of his work.
David Serero is a multi award winning French architect who has had many international projects in France, United States and Italy.
The Grand prix national de l'architecture is a French prize awarded by a jury of twenty persons under the chairmanship of the Ministry of Culture to an architect, or an architectural firm, for recognition of an outstanding contribution to architecture. Established in 1975 and relaunched in 2004, it is the highest French award in architecture.
Françoise H Jourda was an award-winning French architect. Jourda has taught architecture internationally since 1979 at the Ecole d’Architecture de Lyon, the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, the University of Minnesota, the Polytechnic of Central London, the Technical University of Kassel, Germany, and since 1999 at the Vienna University of Technology. Jourda has her own firm, JAP, and heads EO-CITE, an architecture and urban planning consulting firm.
Odile Decq is a French architect, urban planner and academic. She is the founder of the Paris firm, Studio Odile Decq and the architecture school, Confluence Institute. Decq is known for her self-described goth appearance and style.
Hubert Tonka is a French sociologist and urban planner who edited the Utopie magazine, and was one of the leaders of the Utopie movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Nicolas Michelin is a French architect and urban planner. After joining forces with Finn Geipel to form LABFAC in 1985, he went on to found ANMA in 2000, which he currently runs in collaboration with his partners Michel Delplace and Cyril Trétout.
The year 2019 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Jean-Pierre Pranlas-Descours is a French architect and urban planner associated with a minimalist aesthetic.
Anne Lacaton is a French architect and educator. She runs the architectural practice Lacaton & Vassal, with Jean-Philippe Vassal. The pair were jointly awarded the 2021 Pritzker Prize.
The year 2021 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.
Jean-Philippe Vassal is a French architect and academic. He runs the architectural practice Lacaton & Vassal, with Anne Lacaton. The pair were jointly awarded the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
↑ Guth, Sabine; Léger, Jean-Michel; Trivière, François-Javier (2013). Analyses-évaluation: La Cité Manifeste à Mulhouse (in French). Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture and Institut Parisien de Recherche, Architecture Urbanistique et Sociétés. pp.167–240.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
