Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, are this year's
winners of the most prestigious award in architecture, the Pritzker. These French
architects approach their work with kindness, which means never tearing down
buildings to implement their own grand visions.
“When Lacaton and Vassal were asked to redesign a
particularly large and hideous public housing bloc in
Bordeaux in 2017, the residents told them they did not want to move,
even temporarily, but they wanted bigger units. The solution, devised with
fellow architects Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin, was to encase the
building in large outdoor terraces, adding sliding glass doors to each unit,
and remaking the exterior from drab concrete to something gleaming, modern and
alive. Suddenly, everyone had roomy outdoor space, some of which was enclosed
to be used during the winter as "winter gardens."
"The firm's approach of cost-effective, creative readaption
could be a model for urban planning in the U.S., Wilson says, where
demolition's been seen as a solution to deteriorating public housing in such
cities as Chicago and St. Louis."
When we think about housing for adults with disabilities, why do many think first of new construction. Don't we have enough existing apartment buildings, homes and duplexes that could work with this "kind" of architecture?
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Keeping it real!
Donna
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