Anne Lacaton, second from the left.

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Alejandro Garcia / EFE / SIPA

The Pritzker Prize, the highest distinction in the world of architecture, was awarded Tuesday to the French Jean-Philippe Vassal and Anne Lacaton, who advocate an architecture dedicated to the well-being of the greatest number, combining generous spaces and modest budgets.

Anne Lacaton thereby becomes the sixth woman to appear on the list of this long exclusively male award.

"As solid in its forms as in its convictions"

“Their work, which responds to the climatic and ecological emergencies of our time as much as to its social emergencies, in particular in the field of urban housing, gives new vigor to the modernist hopes and dreams of improving the life of the greatest number ”, estimated the jury of this price founded in 1979, endowed with 100,000 dollars of reward.

"They achieve this thanks to a keen sense of space and materials which generates an architecture as solid in its forms as in its convictions, as transparent in its aesthetics as in its ethics", added the jury in a press release.

The "Latapie house"

The duo of Parisian architects, already awarded in France by the National Architecture Grand Prize in 2008, made a name for themselves with the “Maison Latapie”, a detached house built in 1993 for a family of two children, in a banal street de Floirac, very close to Bordeaux, which has become emblematic of accommodation that is spacious, independent and inexpensive.

Far from the traditional suburban pavilion, the back of the house looks like a shed: polycarbonate panels - retractable and transparent - bathe the accommodation in natural light, enlarging the interior common spaces and facilitating climate control.

Redefining the profession of architect

It was with this project that they first applied greenhouse technologies to the installation of a 60 m2 winter garden, which was to become the most used space in the house.

The couple - they got to know each other at the Bordeaux architecture school, from which they graduated in 1980 - is also rewarded for having "redefined the profession of architect", by favoring the transformation and improvement of existing housing into urban environment, to the detriment of new.

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