Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have been selected as the winners of the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Founded in 1979 by Jay and Cindy Pritzker and funded by the Hyatt Foundation, the $100,000 prize honors a living architect or architects whose work demonstrates a combination of talent, vision, and commitment to humanity and the built environment. Through their Paris-based firm, Lacaton and Vassal have designed private and social housing, cultural and academic institutions, public spaces, and urban developments, always with a focus on sustainability and the preservation of existing structures.

As early as 1993, in their Latapie House project in Floriac, France, Lacaton and Vassal used greenhouse technologies to create additional living space efficiently and inexpensively. Their other projects include the Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2012); Cap Ferret House (Cap Ferret, France; 1998), fourteen social houses for Cité Manifeste (Mulhouse, France; 2005); Pôle Universitaire de Sciences de Gestion (Bordeaux, France; 2008); a multipurpose theater (Lille, France; 2013); mixed student and social housing on the bank of the Canal de l'Ourcq (Paris, 2013); a 59-unit housing development at Jardins Neppert (Mulhouse, France; 2014–2015); and a residential/office building in Chêne-Bourg (Geneva, Switzerland 2020).

"Transformation is the opportunity of doing more and better with what is already existing," said Lacaton. "[Demolition] is a decision of easiness and short term. It is a waste of many things — a waste of energy, a waste of material, and a waste of history. Moreover, it has a very negative social impact. For us, it is an act of violence."

"This year, more than ever, we have felt that we are part of humankind as a whole. Be it for health, political, or social reasons, there is a need to build a sense of collectiveness," said Alejandro Aravena, chair of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury. "Like in any interconnected system, being fair to the environment, being fair to humanity, is being fair to the next generation. Lacaton and Vassal are radical in their delicacy and bold through their subtleness, balancing a respectful yet straightforward approach to the built environment."