This week on Dezeen, we celebrated refurbishment experts Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal being named the winners of the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Founders of French studio Lacaton & Vassal, the French architecture duo is known for their social housing projects and a dedication to refurbishing existing buildings.
“Transformation is the opportunity of doing more and better with what is already existing,” said Lacaton.
“The demolishing is a decision of easiness and short term. It is a waste of many things – a waste of energy, a waste of material, and a waste of history,” he continued. Moreover, it has a very negative social impact. For us, it is an act of violence.”
To mark the pair’s win, we rounded up 10 of the French duo’s most significant projects including social housing projects in Paris and Grand Parc Bordeaux (above).
In an opinion piece written after the announcement, Phineas Harper said “awarding the Pritzker to a team synonymous with refurbs marks an important shift in architectural values”.
In other architecture news, two major projects moved closer to completion. In southern France, Frank Gehry’s Luma Arles arts tower designed to evoke Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting announced that it will be opening in June.
In Hong Kong construction of the M+ museum of visual culture by Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with architecture studio Farrells also completed ahead of an opening at the end of the year.
In design news, Alexis Christodoulou became the latest 3D artist to sell his renderings online as part of an NFT auction.
The designer’s collection of nine looped, animated videos of different dreamscapes sold for a combined total of nearly $340,000.
This week also saw IKEA unveil an Allen key-shaped lamp designed by Japanese design studio Gelchop as a nod towards the brand’s flatpack furniture.
“The Allen key symbolises the essence of IKEA but it’s rarely at the centre of attention,” said Gelchop co-founder Ryota Morikawa.
“As a tool that is used to assemble furniture, the Allen wrench has a small, insignificant existence. But I have changed it into a larger item that is different from its everyday size.”
In Norway, the “world’s first full-scale ship tunnel” moved closer to reality as the Norwegian Coastal Administration was given the green light for the project by the Ministry of Transport and Communication.
Construction of the 1.7-kilometre Stad Ship Tunnel is now set to begin in 2022.
Popular projects this week included a Barcelona apartment building with bright yellow balconies, a cedar-clad cabin on an English farm and an Amsterdam home designed around the owner’s extensive art collection
This week’s lookbooks focused on calm interiors with natural clay wall finishes and contemporary children’s bedrooms.
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