The Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine presents a monographic exhibition on the work of Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal.
Among the most interesting talents of an entire generation of French architects, Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal feature in an excellent exhibition at the Cité d’Architecture, designed by the architects themselves. Declared “Young talents” in 1999 by the Ministry of Culture and last year awarded the Grand Prix National de l’Architecture, these two radical architects from Bordeaux use their built works – from the now famous Maison Latapie at Floriac (Bordeaux) from 1993 to the new École nationale supérieure d’architecture in Nantes, under construction – to describe their discreet approach and ultra-minimal language that optimises what are often limited budgets, experimenting with materials and construction and blending architecture with landscape (such as the tree house at Cap Ferret) to ‘liberate’ the building, that in their hands becomes a container open to the various interpretations of the user.