French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal, founder of the studio Lacaton & Vassal, were named winners of this year Pritzker Architecture Prize, often referred as the highest honor in architecture, for they have not only “defined an architectural approach that renews the legacy of modernism, but they have also proposed an adjusted definition of the very profession of architecture”, states the jury, with a body of work that reflects “architecture’s democratic nisirit”. Anne Lacaton is the sixth woman to receive the prize, and the first female architect. 

Their practice Lacaton & Vassal has completed over 30 projects in Europe and West Africa, and is well known for its ethos of “never demolish”, with interventions that gave new life to pre-existing urban architecture. Their overhaul of 530 apartments in Bordeaux, realized with Frédéric Drout and Christophe Hutin, won the Mies Van der Rohe Award 2019.

Opening photo courtesy of Laurent Chalet