The Pritzker Architecture Prize jury just revealed that French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal of Lacaton & Vassal will be the 2021 laureates of the coveted recognition.
“Not only have they defined an architectural approach that renews the legacy of modernism, but they need also proposed an adjusted definition of the very profession of architecture. The modernist hopes and dreams to enhance the lives of the many are reinvigorated through their work that responds to the climatic and ecological emergencies of our time, also as social urgencies, particularly within the realm of urban housing. They accomplish this through a strong sense of space and materials that makes architecture as strong in its forms as in its convictions, as transparent in its aesthetic as in its ethics,” states the jury citation, in part.
“Good architecture is open — hospitable life, hospitable enhance the liberty of anyone, where anyone can do what they have to try to to ,” said Anne Lacaton. “It shouldn’t be demonstrative or imposing, but it must be something familiar, useful and delightful , with the power to quietly support the life which will happen within it.”
Jean-Philippe Vassal added: “Our work is about solving constraints and problems, and finding spaces which will create uses, emotions and feelings. At the top of this process and every one of this effort, there must be lightness and ease , when all that has been before was so complex.”
“This year, quite ever, we’ve felt that we are a part of humankind as an entire . Be it for health, political or social reasons, there’s a requirement to create a way of collectiveness. Like in any interconnected system, being fair to the environment, being fair to humanity, is being fair to subsequent generation,” commented Alejandro Aravena, Chair of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury. “Lacaton and Vassal are radical in their delicacy and bold through their subtleness, balancing a respectful yet straightforward approach to the built environment.”
Lacaton and Vassal will join the Pritzker’s honorary list of laureates, which in recent years included Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects (who collectively won the 2020 prize), Arata Isozaki (2019), Balkrishna Doshi (2018), RCR Arquitectes co-founders Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta (2017), Alejandro Aravena (2016), the late Frei Otto (2015), Shigeru Ban (2014), Toyo Ito (2013), and Wang Shu (2012).
