“In constructing our architecture we work from the inside towards the outside. Our starting point is not the elaboration of the external form, but a reflection on the inhabited space that takes account of themes such as comfort, ambience, intelligent construction, economy of means and materials, economy as the method of best realising the ambitions of the project.” In the words of Anne Lacaton, partner in the practice of Lacaton & Vassal, lies the awareness of someone who brings designs into reality, rising above useless formalism.

With economic resources often at a minimum, Anne Lacaton and Philippe Vassal are able to make a virtue out of necessity and create minimal but incisive designs, such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (Domus no. 847, April 2002). The exhibition at the AA in London has been conceived as a kind of “spiritual extension” of the two architects – the gallery is filled with sofas where one can sit back and enter, at least in theory, the world of Lacaton & Vassal. L.B. 

Until 10.12.2004
Lacaton & Vassal
Architectural Association School of Architecture
36 Bedford Square, London  
T +44-20-78874145
https://www.aaschool.ac.uk