The Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture’s highest honor, has been awarded to the French duo of Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal for “prioritizing the enrichment of urban life,” especially in the context of affordable public housing. The announcement was made Tuesday by Tom Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award. Lacaton and Vassal met while studying architecture in the late ’70s in Bordeaux. They founded their Paris firm, Lacaton & Vassal, in 1987. They’ve devoted their energies to both private and public housing, as well as museums and other cultural and academic institutions and public spaces. Lacaton notes “good architecture is open — open to life.”
