Pritzker Prize 2021 winners Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal are revered for their humble, exploratory take on architecture. The duo have headed Paris-based studio Lacaton & Vassal since 1987, and are critically acclaimed for their work in housing, in particular, such as their multi-family projects that display a gentle, considerate approach and sustainable architecture; they are also behind a slew of private single-family homes too. And two of these Lacaton & Vassal houses have now gone on the market in France – the 1993-built Maison Latapie in Floirac, and 1999’s Maison Floquet in Bordeaux.
Maison Latapie was among the first of just six private houses completed by the studio. Experimental and refreshing, the house ‘embodies their radically new approach to housing, based on an economy of resources pushed to the extreme', says Aurélien Vernant, director of Architecture de Collection, the real-estate specialist that is looking after the sales. Designed to be flexible, economical, and sustainable, Maison Latapie is a house that well represents Lacaton and Vassal's overall approach.
Lacaton & Vassal houses: ‘open to life’
Maison Floquet
The two architects seek to develop ‘building systems that give freedom, like in other times the Dom-Ino house or apartment buildings of Le Corbusier, the ecological houses of Frei Otto in Berlin', Vassal has said of their residential work; such elements are on display within these two homes.
Maison Floquet offers an alternative premise, being the transformation of a former cookie factory into a family home. But even with a different starting point, Lacaton & Vassal’s approach remains consistent, drawing on iconic loft spaces and reclaimed industrial sites to compose a bright home with an open, airy, light-filled central courtyard at its heart. ‘This pragmatic, ecological and inventive approach, which reinterprets “what is already there” with simplicity and finesse to maximise its uses, earned them the Equerre d'Argent award in 2011 for their rehabilitation of the Tour Bois-le-Prêtre apartment block,’ say the estate agents.
‘Good architecture is open – open to life, open to enhance the freedom of anyone, where anyone can do what they need to do,’ Lacaton said, following the pair’s 2021 Pritzker Prize win. ‘It should not be demonstrative or imposing, but it must be something familiar, useful and beautiful, with the ability to quietly support the life that will take place within it.’
These two homes certainly showcase this ethos, and are a true representation of Lacaton & Vassal's architecture of gentle dynamism and experimentation.
Maison Latapie
Maison Latapie
Maison Floquet
Maison Floquet
Maison Floquet
Maison Floquet
Maison Floquet
Maison Floquet
INFORMATION
-
Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 showsThe Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
-
Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to knowDesigning the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
-
Premium patisserie Naya is Mayfair’s latest sweet spotHeritage meets opulence at Naya bakery in Mayfair, London. With interiors by India Hicks and Anna Goulandris, the patisserie looks good enough to eat
-
Stay in a Parisian apartment which artfully balances minimalism and warmthTour this pied-a-terre in the 7th arrondissement, designed by Valeriane Lazard
-
Marta Pan and André Wogenscky's legacy is alive through their modernist home in FranceFondation Marta Pan – André Wogenscky: how a creative couple’s sculptural masterpiece in France keeps its authors’ legacy alive
-
Paris’ architecturally fascinating Villejuif-Gustave Roussy metro station is now openVillejuif-Gustave Roussy is part of the new Grand Paris Express, a transport network that will raise the architectural profile of the Paris suburbs
-
Explore wood architecture, Paris' new timber tower and how to make sustainable construction look ‘iconic’A new timber tower brings wood architecture into sharp focus in Paris and highlights ways to craft buildings that are both sustainable and look great: we spoke to project architects LAN, and explore the genre through further examples
-
A transformed chalet by Studio Razavi redesigns an existing structure into a well-crafted Alpine retreatThis overhauled chalet in the French Alps blends traditional forms with a highly bespoke interior
-
La Grande Motte: touring the 20th-century modernist dream of a French paradise resortLa Grande Motte and its utopian modernist dreams, as seen through the lens of photographers Laurent Kronental and Charly Broyez, who spectacularly captured the 20th-century resort community in the south of France
-
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain unveils plans for new Jean Nouvel buildingFondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain has plans for a new building in Paris, working with architect Jean Nouvel
-
Discover Tempe à Pailla, a lesser-known Eileen Gray gem nestled in the French RivieraTempe à Pailla is a modernist villa in the French Riviera brimming with history, originally designed by architect Eileen Gray and extended by late British painter Graham Sutherland
