Anne Lacaton

Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal won the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Their work is known for reusing existing buildings, adding space, and avoiding demolition, especially in social housing projects.

Their principle is often summarized as adding rather than subtracting. At projects such as Grand Parc Bordeaux, they expanded apartments with winter gardens and balconies instead of demolishing the housing blocks.

Lacaton and Vassal renovated the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, preserving its raw structure rather than making it polished and sealed. The project helped show their preference for generous, flexible space over expensive finishes.

Yes. Her architecture treats reuse as a core environmental strategy, because keeping existing concrete structures can avoid major demolition waste and carbon costs.