NEW YORK: The Pritzker Prize — architecture’s most prestigious award — was awarded Tuesday to French duo Jean-Philippe Vassal and Anne Lacaton for their affordable, eco-friendly spaces that prioritize the well-being of the many.
Vassal, 67, and Lacaton, 65, received the accolade — which was first awarded in 1979 and comes with $100,000 in prize money— for their work transforming urban housing into uplifting and sustainable spaces on modest budgets.
“The modernist hopes and dreams to improve the lives of many are reinvigorated through their work that responds to the climatic and ecological emergencies of our time, as well as social urgencies, particularly in the realm of urban housing,” said the jury.
Vassal and Lacaton “accomplish this through a powerful sense of space and materials that creates architecture as strong in its forms as in its convictions, as transparent in its aesthetic as in its ethics,” the jurors added.
The Parisian architects — who won France’s national architecture prize in 2008 — made names for themselves with “Maison Latapie,” a stand-alone family home built in 1993 in Floirac, near Bordeaux, that has become emblematic of accommodation that is spacious and inexpensive.
Vastly different to a traditional suburban home, the back of the house resembles a shed: retractable and transparent polycarbonate panels bathe the house in natural light, making the rooms feel larger while also facilitating climate control.
The project marked the first time they applied greenhouse technology with the installation of a winter garden. Systems derived from horticulture are “extremely intelligent for playing with the sun or the climate, in terms of ventilation or solar supply,” said Vassal.
The pair, who got to know each other at the Bordeaux School of Architecture, from which they graduated in 1980, is also honoured for also having “proposed an adjusted definition of the very profession of architecture.”
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