French champions of affordable housing win Pritzker Prize

Ms Anne Lacaton and Mr Jean-Philippe Vassal have never demolished a building in order to construct a new one. 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 putting that approach into practice, they have won their field's highest honour - the Pritzker Prize.

The jury said in its citation: "Through their ideas, approach to the profession and the resulting buildings, they have proven that a commitment to a restorative architecture that is at once technological, innovative and ecologically responsive can be pursued without nostalgia."

In a joint telephone interview, Ms Lacaton, 65, and Mr Vassal, 67, said they have long been opposed to taking things down.

"There are too many demolitions of existing buildings which are not old, which still have a life in front of them, which are not out of use," said Ms Lacaton. "We think that is too big a waste of materials. If we observe carefully... there is always something positive to take from an existing situation."

Mr Vassal said they even once constructed a building around a forest - always making sure to integrate the natural landscape and preserve the past. "Never demolish, never cut a tree, never take out a row of flowers. Take care of the memory of things that were already there and listen to the people who are living there."

This philosophy is evident in their projects such as their 2012 expansion of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. By burrowing into the basement with raw, minimalist materials, they transformed that remnant of the 1937 World's Fair into what is reputed to be the biggest non-collecting contemporary art museum in Europe.

Mr Vassal said: "Architecture can become more and more about technology, more and more complex, more and more based on regulations, and we try to avoid all of this."

He added that the pair prefers "to work with very simple elements - air, sun - that we don't have to pay for".

The architects said they emphasise freedom as well as function - leaving spaces undefined, which allows the tenants to be inventive.

Designing affordable housing has always been paramount, they said, because quality is often sacrificed and the results are substandard. Through the use of simple designs and basic materials, they have challenged the notion that generous space and limited funds are incompatible.

A house may look "ugly or boring" to some, Mr Vassal said. But look inside and you may find "a lady who offers you cake and coffee. Behind these rooms, there is life".

The importance the architects have put on housing was borne out by the pandemic, they said. With people forced to spend most of their time at home, "we see how important it is to think of the conditions of everyday life", Ms Lacaton said.

In some instances, their imprint involves very little intervention.

For Leon Aucoc Plaza in 1996, the jury citation said "their approach was simply to undertake the minimal work of replacing the gravel, treating the lime trees and slightly modifying the traffic, all to grant renewed potential to what already existed".

The architects met in Bordeaux at the School of Architecture during the late 1970s, after which they spent five years working in Niger, in the south of the Sahara.

"The desert for us was really like a second school," Mr Vassal said. It was there they learnt what he called a "poetic approach" - how, with elementary materials such as wood and fabric, you can create shade.

Their practice is small - about 10 people, including the couple.

Yet it has completed more than 30 projects throughout Europe and West Africa, including 53 low-rise apartment units in Saint-Nazaire, France, and a residential and office building in Geneva.

Some architects have a clear signature - you can often recognise a building by other Pritzker laureates.

But Mr Vassal and Ms Lacaton do not initially concern themselves with how a project is going to look. Instead, they design from the inside out, focusing on the purpose or use of a space - confident that the process will yield a materially satisfying result.

"We don't search for an aesthetic," Mr Vassal said. "This idea that aesthetics are the result of the process of creation is not something we have to think at the beginning. We think beauty always happens at the end."

NYTIMES