Lacaton & Vassal
Lacaton & Vassal, based in Paris and created in 1989, is an international practice, working on public buildings, housing and urban planning. All the projects of Lacaton and Vassal are based on a principle of generosity and economy, serving the life, the uses and the appropriation, with the aim of changing the standard and a strong commitment for sustainability and social impact.
Working carefully with climate and everything already there, reuse, transformation instead of demolition and always restarting from the empty, is also a principal of the office’s attitude.
The main works completed: the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, the Architecture school in Nantes, and significant housing projects: House Latapie, Bordeaux, “Cité Manifeste”, social housing in Mulhouse, the transformation of modernist social housing blocks in Paris and Bordeaux, a housing tower block in Geneva.
“A shared vision of the main issues and challenges of architecture and urban planning for the future and the high level of standard of education of the University of Sydney that came up through our preliminary discussions convinced us to take up the Rothwell appointment.“
– Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal
“With the generous gift from Garry and Susan Rothwell and the appointment of Lacaton & Vassal, the School will further advance its ethos of socially relevant architecture and design, as well as its commitment to advancing the quality of architectural design in the Australian profession.”
– Professor Robyn Dowling, Head of School and Dean
Anne Lacaton
Born in France in 1955.
Graduated from the School of architecture of Bordeaux in 1980.
Diploma in Urban Planning at the university of Bordeaux in 1984.
Professor at ETH Zürich
Visiting professor at the EPFL Lausanne 2010-11, at Harvard GSD 2011 & 2015, at TU Delft, sem. 2016-1, and since 2007 in the Master Housing at the University of Madrid.
Jean Philippe Vassal
Born in Casablanca, Morocco in 1954.
Graduated from the school of architecture of Bordeaux in 1980.
Worked as urban planner in Niger (West Africa) from 1980 to 1985.
Professor at the UDK in Berlin
Visiting professor at the TU in Berlin (2007-11), at the Peter Behrens School of architecture in Düsseldorf 2005, at the EPFL Lausanne 2010-11
Awards
Pritzker Architecture Prize, 2021
EU Mies Van der Rohe Award, 2019
Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, 2018
Heinrich Tessenow Award, 2016, Foundation Heinrich Tessenow, Germany
Rolf Shock Prize, visual arts, Sweden, 2014
Daylight & Building Components Award 2011 – Velux Foundation, Copenhaguen
Grand Prix National d’Architecture, France, 2008
Erich Schelling Award 2006 – Fondation Erich Schelling, Karlsruhe
Member of the Academy der Kunste, Berlin (Anne Lacaton)
Honorary member of the BDA, Bundes Deutscher Architekten