Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, who won the Pritzker Prize for architecture earlier this year, have never worked in the U.S. And it’s possible they never will, given the gap between their approach to sustainability, which is about using less, and the American approach, which tends to involve buying and installing lots of stuff.
The Paris-based architects are best known for taking humdrum public housing blocks and making them larger and more livable by removing their facades and adding balconies. The results aren’t exactly beautiful, but they solve a problem without requiring a vast outlay of cash or carbon. “There are too many demolitions of existing buildings which are not old, which still have a life in front of them, which are not out of use,” said Lacaton. “We think that is too big a waste of materials.” Vassal put it even more simply: “Never demolish.” Their buildings go easy on the environment by leaving well enough alone.
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