2021 Pritzker Prize Goes To French Architects
2021 Pritzker Prize Goes To French Architects Who 'Work With Kindness'. Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have never demolished a building in order to construct a new one. The firm's approach of cost-effective, creative readaption could be a model for urban planning in the U.S. The French architects, who are based in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, believe that every structure can be repurposed, reinvented, reinvigorated. Now, after 34 years of designing affordable new spaces out of existing structures, they have won their field’s highest honor: the Pritzker Prize. “Through their ideas, approach to the profession and the resulting buildings,” the jury said in its citation, “they have proven that a commitment to a restorative architecture that is at once technological, innovative and ecologically responsive can be pursued without nostalgia.” Their approach means never tearing down buildings to implement their own grand visions. When Lacaton and Vassal were asked to redesign a particularly large and hideous public housing bloc in Bordeaux in 2017, the residents told them they did not want to move, even temporarily, but they wanted bigger units. The solution, devised with fellow architects Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin, was to encase the building in large outdoor terraces, adding sliding glass doors to each unit, and remaking the exterior from drab concrete to something gleaming, modern and alive. Suddenly, everyone had roomy outdoor space, some of which was enclosed to be used during the winter as "winter gardens."
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