The Lacaton & Vassal professional motto is simple: “Never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform and reuse!”
It sounds modern, but it is far from typical of a profession keen to "regenerate" generally by destroying perfectly solid buildings which simply need imagination and refurbishment to adjust them to contemporary needs.
Demolition, says Anne Lacaton, is "a waste of energy, of materials, a waste of history". It's an easy option, very short term. "Moreover, it has a negative social impact. For us, it is an act of violence.”
YES! Finally the #PritzkerPrize goes to an architecture firm best known for their brilliant refurbishments of existing buildings. This is how we get architecture's carbon emissions under control: less demolition, less new construction, epic sexy retrofitting projects. pic.twitter.com/FJfjA7cO24
— Phineas Harper (@PhinHarper) March 16, 2021
They have been working together for three decades, always on the principle that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
When they were asked to redesign a square in the western French city of Bordeaux, the duo told the local council to leave it alone. Instead of wasting public money, they recommended spreading some gravel, reorganising the traffic, and left it at that.
Thanks @nrebolledo for sharing with me the crisp, early example of Strategic Design from architects Lacaton & Vassal before we necessarily used that label - they decided simply to tidy rather than rebuild the Place Léon Aucoc in Bordeaux https://t.co/TtuvbUkcaj
— Camilla (@annie_camilla) October 5, 2018
Specialists in public housing, they have managed to reduce the cost of refurbishment by about two-thirds in council projects in both Paris and Bordeaux.
Instead of knocking down the 1960s Bois de Prêtre tower in the French capital, Lacaton and Vassal simply added floor space on all sides of the original structure, covering the transformed building in insulating glass.
It enlarged and brightened existing apartments, costing one-third of the demolish-and-rebuild option. And the tenants did not have to be relocated during construction.
The pair's on-going work at the Palais de Tokyo art gallery in Paris has similarly left the 1930s shell intact, using interlinked, internal wooden platforms to create a series of exhibition spaces.
Economy, a tool of freedom
Lacaton and Vassal do build from scratch, when they have to.
Their architecture school in the French city of Nantes is based on three concrete floors, with infinitely adjustable internal walls. The levels are linked by ramps. The pair provided twice the amount of space originally demanded, for the same budget.
“Economy is not a lack of ambition,” they say, “but a tool of freedom.”
“I think freedom of use is quite a simple concept to understand. It means that architecture is not constraining.” Anne Lacaton, 2021 Pritzker Prize Laureate. Photo courtesy of Philippe Ruault. pic.twitter.com/gnFHTnuNwq
— Pritzker Prize (@PritzkerPrize) March 16, 2021
Lacaton and Vassal admit that they often have no idea what the finished building will look like, a result of their insistence on re-using what can be saved, and trying to waste as little as possible.
They submit line drawings and financial projections to international competitions, where they clash with the polished computer graphics of rival practices. They don't always win, but they don't believe in pretending.
They refuse standardisation, and reject the pressures imposed by "the steam-roller of market values".
The pair avoid rare and expensive materials. Their idea of luxury is related to air quality, the availability of natural light, the sense of freedom created by a space.
The Pritzker jury praised Lacaton and Vassal's audacity, delicacy and creativity. To say nothing of their modernity.
