Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have been formally awarded the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize at a special ceremony which took place on September 14th. The French architects were announced as recipients of the prestigious prize in March in recognition of their contribution to the built environment, particularly their commitment to sustainability through the use of pre-existing structures.

Ceremony highlights. Video courtesy Pritzker Architecture Prize. 

During their ceremony acceptance speech, Lacaton and Vassal stressed the importance of creating habitable spaces with a positive relationship to the climate and starting from a principle of retaining, rather than demolishing, existing structures. “In this respect, the heritage of modernity and experiments with free plan, spatial generosity, transparency and light for all, offer many valuable lessons,” they said.

“Considering the existing as a present material deeply modifies the way we envisage the city, which is always approached from a perspective, either prospective or conservative, and never in its present state,” they continued. “Yet the future is precisely the present. Considering the existing as a present material enables us to consider every situation without a filter or reading grid, with eyes open, positive and precise.”

The ceremony included tributes from Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, founders of Grafton Architects and recipients of the 2020 Pritzker Prize. “It is important for the world to know that people like you exist; It is important for us,” said Farrell. “It is your philosophical positions, your highly intelligent understanding of situations, and your seemingly modest solutions, that make you leaders. Your architectural strategies are both delicate and robust, which help us see solutions that are inventive, that lead to renewed ways of thinking, to renewed ways of making.”

“They use words such as tender, kind, generous, when speaking about a place or a program, or a community,” added McNamara. “They have shown us how important it is to listen. They work patiently and tirelessly with communities and people so as to make an architecture that liberates and provides freedom and comfort for the human body, for the human psyche. They make spaces that are beautiful. Full of joy, full of light, full of fresh air, full of hope.”

The ceremony was also addressed by Alejandro Aravena, winner of the 2016 Pritzker Prize. “The times we are living require, more than ever, to work on leveling the field and building community,” said Aravena. “Be it for political, social, or public health reasons, there is a need to build trust instead of fear in the collective.” 

"Their approach to sustainability in that sense not only refers to the built environment. The architecture of Lacaton and Vassal has identified and implemented projects that through civic programs, building methods, public uses and living spaces are addressing such growing need. Their architecture contributes in very concrete way to cool down not only the environmental but also the social warming that is affecting us.”

The full ceremony can be watched below.

Full ceremony. Video courtesy Pritzker Architecture Prize.