New Now Next Lecture: Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal

Irish Architecture Foundation presents a lecture with Pritzker Prize-winning architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal

Lacaton & Vassal were awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize this March in recognition of the outstanding new buildings and transformative social and cultural projects they have undertaken since establishing their practice in Paris in 1987. This lecture is a rare opportunity to hear them reflect on their diverse and world-class portfolio of work.

Throughout their careers, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have pioneered alternatives to city plans calling for the demolition of social housing and instead have offered a strategy that saves the building while prioritizing the needs of the inhabitants, the environment, and the wider community. 

Among the duo’s key projects are the renovation of a 1960s housing block in Bordeaux (with Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin) known as 530 Dwellings at Grand Parc;  the adaptive reuse of a former shipyard in Dunkirk to create the FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais art gallery; and the overhaul of the Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris.

Their previous awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award, Trienal de Lisboa (2016), and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (2019) along with Frédéric Druot Architecture and Christophe Hutin Architecture for the transformation of 530 Dwellings at Grand Parc, Bordeaux.

Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell, the 2020 Pritzker Prize laureates and recent RIBA Stirling Prize recipients from Grafton Architects in Dublin, will join the virtual stage to introduce their prize-winning counterparts and lead the final discussion.

This event is brought to you by the Irish Architecture Foundation as part of their annual international talks series called New Now Next, which is sponsored by ARUP.