Lacaton & Vassal: The Latest Architecture and News

This week started with World Cities Day, which this year, in line with World Architecture Day, was an occasion to spotlight deficient access to adequate housing, secure tenure, basic services, and affordable living conditions worldwide. Once again, we are faced with a call to approach architecture and urban design differently, making design a social tool rather than merely a market tool. Examples of sensible approaches can be seen in this week's announcements: waste-based materials, adaptive reuse of industrial heritage, and the recognition of the evolving nature of drawing. The controversial proposal to replace Milan's San Siro Stadium with a new design by Foster + Partners raises questions about notions of value and beauty in the contemporary world, while at ArchDaily, we invite students to imagine new forms of urban life through architecture. To reasonable conflicts, creative solutions. Finally, in this week's radar, we received news from the XIV Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU), held this year in Brasília; a new curved timber-and-concrete building by OODA in Lisbon; and a masterplan by SOM for a brand-new city in Egypt.

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Pritzker Prize laureates Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have been announced as the recipients of the 2027 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand. Organized annually by the Créateurs Design Awards (CDA), the prize recognizes practitioners whose contributions have advanced architecture and design through a peer-led voting process. For its eighth edition, the organization highlighted the work of the French architectural studio as a demonstration of "how the adaptation of existing structures can improve living conditions while preserving resources and architectural heritage." Previous recipients of the prize include Xu Tiantian; Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa; Frida Escobedo; and Jeanne Gang.

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A greenhouse is a building designed to create one climate inside another. By controlling sunlight, heat, and ventilation through its enclosure, it produces conditions that differ from those outside. Traditionally, that controlled environment was designed around plants. In housing, the same principle is increasingly being used to shape spaces for people.

Bringing greenhouse construction into a house offers more than additional enclosure. It can create sheltered spaces without conditioning them like conventional interior rooms, capture solar heat when it is useful, provide ventilation when temperatures rise, and extend the periods of the year when certain areas of the home remain comfortable to occupy.

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More than three decades after previously hosting the event, Barcelona is set to welcome the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona (UIA2026BCN), bringing the global architectural community back to the city between 28 June and 2 July 2026. Organized under the theme "Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition," the Congress is expected to gather approximately 10,000 participants from over 130 countries, including practitioners, researchers, and students. Rather than being confined to a single venue, the event will unfold across multiple locations along the Mediterranean seafront, among them the Three Chimneys complex, positioning the city itself as an active platform for exchange, discussion, and public programming.

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Lacaton & Vassal have announced the transformation of a former administrative center into a mixed-use residential and office building in Vannes, a medieval town in Brittany, northwest France. The project is part of a State policy to mobilize state-owned land for housing. In 2023, the French State launched a call for expressions of interest for a project on the former administrative complex, which housed several State services, in consultation with the City of Vannes. The winning proposal is a partnership between GReeStone Immobilier and Grand Ouest Immobilier, with an architectural team formed by the office of Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, winners of the 2021 Pritzker Prize, in partnership with Emmanuelle Delage Architecte. According to the city government, the proposal was chosen with the aim of promoting resilience and limiting the carbon footprint by renovating rather than demolishing.

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Architectural heritage is often described as what survives time. Yet survival does not explain why certain buildings are preserved while others disappear. Many works now protected as cultural heritage were once criticized, contested, or openly rejected; they were accused of being socially misguided, materially flawed, or symbolically excessive. Over time, however, these same shortcomings have become central to their meaning as heritage emerges as a slow and unstable process of interpretation.

Contemporary architecture operates under intense scrutiny, pressured by environmental responsibility, social equity, economic volatility, and accelerated technological change. Buildings are expected to perform ethically, efficiently, and symbolically, often simultaneously. As a result, architectural failure is no longer an exception but an increasingly common condition. Projects age faster, materials reveal limitations sooner, and urban strategies quickly fall out of sync with shifting political, social, and environmental realities.

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The Pritzker Prize is the most important award in the field of architecture, awarded to a living architect whose built work "has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity through the art of architecture." The Prize rewards individuals, not offices, as happened in 2000 (when the jury selected Rem Koolhaas instead of his firm OMA) or in 2016 (with Alejandro Aravena selected instead of ELEMENTAL); however, the Prize can also be awarded to multiple individuals working together, as was the case in 2001 (Herzog & de Meuron), 2010 (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa from SANAA), and 2017 (Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta from RCR Arquitectes).

This article is part of our new Opinion section, a format for argument-driven essays on critical questions shaping our field.

Who designs architecture today? In a professional landscape increasingly defined by collaborative workflows, generative software, and distributed teams, the figure of the architect as a singular creative author feels both anachronistic and inadequate. This article argues that architectural authorship is no longer an individual act, but a collective and distributed condition shaped by institutions, technologies, and shared forms of labor. The transition from individual to collective authorship is not simply a consequence of larger offices or digital tools; it signals a deeper structural shift in how architecture is produced, communicated, and validated.

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In a world facing ecological exhaustion and spatial saturation, the act of building has come to represent both creation and consumption. For decades, architectural progress was measured by the new: new materials, new technologies, new monuments of ambition. Yet today, the discipline is increasingly shaped by another form of intelligence, one that values what already exists. Architects are learning that doing less can mean designing more, and this shift marks the emergence of what might be called an architecture of restraint: a practice defined by care, maintenance, and the deliberate choice not to build.

The principle recognizes that the most sustainable building is often the one that already stands, and that transformation can occur through preservation, repair, or even absence. Choosing not to build becomes a political and creative act, a response to the material limits of the planet and to the ethical limits of endless growth. That Architecture moves beyond the production of new forms to embrace continuity, extending the life of structures, materials, and memories that already inhabit the world.

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Every June, the Spanish city of Logroño transforms into a space of architectural dialogue, opening its streets, plazas, riverbanks, and traffic islands to temporary structures that redefine how cities are inhabited. For ten editions, Concéntrico has worked not as a specialized fair or an architecture biennale, but as a portable museum — a curatorial gesture that brings a dispersed collection of contemporary architecture into public space. Set in a city suspended between arid plains and distant mountains, far from the circuits of capital cities and cultural institutions, Concéntrico presents itself as a temporary promise. It's a reminder that even cities that are often overlooked can host architecture that is current, diverse, and speculative. In this sense, the festival is less about celebration and more about activation.

But beyond its curatorial logic, Concéntrico operates as a political structure. In the ancient sense of polis, it invites citizens, architects, and institutions to reassess what public space can be. The interventions offer speculative proposals for urban life that reveal what is missing, what is possible, and what should be questioned. A temporary pool over a fountain, a bathhouse in a roundabout, or a shared meal on a major avenue are not just spatial gestures — they are political statements, asking how urban infrastructure might be redirected from control to care, from efficiency to encounter. In that way, the festival becomes not just a reflection of the city, but an instrument for its transformation.

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In recent years, architecture has increasingly embraced adaptability, flexibility, and responsiveness as core design principles. This evolution reflects a shift from traditional notions of static, permanent structures to dynamic environments that can adjust to changing needs and conditions. Central to this transformation is the concept of "soft architecture", which leverages pliable materials and innovative systems to create spaces that are functional, sustainable, and user-centric. Soft architecture takes shape through membranes that breathe, façades that move, structures that inflate or fold, and surfaces that bend rather than break. It involves designing for transformation — not only in how a building performs environmentally, but also in how it can accommodate shifting functions, user interactions, or temporary occupations. This approach to building challenges traditional notions of durability and control, proposing instead a more responsive and open-ended architecture. It reflects a growing awareness that buildings, like the societies they serve, must be able to evolve.

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For nearly the past two decades, cities around the world embraced "starchitecture"—futuristic, eye-catching buildings designed by globally renowned architects. In China, this trend was particularly pronounced as rapid urbanization fueled the construction of iconic megastructures like Zaha Hadid's Galaxy SOHO, OMA's CCTV Headquarters, and Herzog & de Meuron's Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing. At the time of their construction, these were all celebrated as symbols of progress and global ambition. However, architecture worldwide has begun shifting toward a more context-driven, human-centered approach, with China emerging as one of the key contributors to this transformation. This year, Liu Jia Kun's 2025 Pritzker Prize further underscores that shift.

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French architect Anne Lacaton, recipient of the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize,has been awarded the 2025 Jane Drew Prize for Architecture, an annual accolade recognizing an architect whose work and commitment to design excellence have contributed to raising the profile of women in architecture. Part of the W Awards, the prize honors figures who have advanced architectural practice through innovation, advocacy, and impact. Lacaton, co-founder of the Paris-based practice Lacaton & Vassal, was selected for her pioneering approach to sustainable and socially responsible architecture.

In 1900, Paris hosted its first Olympic games. It had been the second city to host them after the first Olympics in Athens. It was also the year of the Exposition Universelle, where the city would again showcase how it remade itself anew in less than 30 years. To this day, Paris remains a hub for all sorts of architectural innovation and development through bold designs that affect how people live and new materials and techniques. It fascinatingly juxtaposes grandeur and monumentalism with its predominately baroque, “second empire,” and art nouveau works; while also pushing for designs that strive for social living reforms such as in Le Corbusier’s experimental works or Lacaton & Vassal’s considerate interventions.

It’s this openness to the world that attracts not only millions of visitors a year but also innovators and architects who have set up shop in Paris and made it their second home. Once again, the city reworks itself as mass construction, renovation, and restoration sites culminate all over the city to host international athletes at the 2024 Olympics.

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Led by Pritzker Prize laureate Anne Lacaton, the jury of the European Collective Housing Awards has just selected the winners for its first edition. Established by the Basque Architecture Institute and Arc en Rêve Centre d’Architecture in collaboration with the Department of Territorial Planning, the award celebrates innovation and excellence in collective housing design, emphasizing aesthetics, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability. The winning projects - La Borda Housing Collective in Spain and the Conversation of a Wine Storage into Housing in Switzerland - were selected from 171 entries across 19 European countries for their contributions to new construction and renovation, respectively.

Anne Lacaton, renowned for her groundbreaking work with partner Jean-Philippe Vassal, has been working to push the boundaries of sustainable and socially responsible housing architecture for decades. The Pritzker Prize laureates are celebrated for their innovative approach to social housing and are committed to enhancing the quality of life for residents. Their philosophy centers around creating generous, adaptable spaces that rethink how we live together. Onsite in San Sebastián, ArchDaily had the chance to interview the Pritzker-Prize winner to delve into her architectural practice and philosophy. In the conversation, the architect explored core values, the significance of reuse in social housing, and the promising trends in collective housing design that emerged from the first edition of the awards.

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Sir John Soane’s Museum has announced French architecture practice Lacaton & Vassal as the recipient of the 2023 Soane Medal. The award comes in recognition of the office’s work spanning over 3 decades. Through an honest design approach, the office became known for the resourceful repurposing of materials and existing structures to prioritize the needs of residents and local communities. For this approach, the office has been previously awarded as the 2021 Pritzker Prize 2021 Laureate.

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The Pritzker Architecture Prize presents The Role of Practice, the 2023 Laureate Lecture and Panel Discussion, today, Tuesday, May 23rd at 3:40 PM EEST, in partnership with the National Technical University of Athens, and with the participation of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Patras and the Technical University of Crete.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2023 Laureate David Chipperfield will deliver the lecture, reflecting on architectural practice's role, responsibilities, and opportunities. Moreover, the 2023 winner will explore "how market forces have dominated architecture and become increasingly detached from its place, just as the challenges of the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, and social inequality have heightened the urgency for a more proactive position". Alejandro Aravena, Jury Chair, and 2016 Laureate will introduce the lecture, which will be followed by a conversation between David Chipperfield, Francis Kéré, 2022 Laureate, and Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, 2021 Laureates, as they each "reveal the successes and failures of their respective journeys which effected their architectural philosophies and works, and led them to the shared stage of the present".

The global pause of the COVID pandemic has provided an opportunity to assess present-day globalism and the architecture that has emerged alongside it. Stemming back to the broad expansion of free trade in the 90s at the end of the Cold War, globalism’s cultural promise was simple and aspirational: integrating markets globally would increase the interaction between and learning of different cultures. By normalizing such experiences in our daily lives, we would become global citizens liberated from our previous prejudices–all well-intentioned objectives.

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