88. Keeping Social Housing

Interview with Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal, 2021 Pritzker Prize Laureates and the Rothwell Program Co-Chairs at the University of Sydney’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Architecture is about freedom, generosity, pleasure. Large spaces generate an essential feeling of escape and freedom. Large spaces facilitate appropriation, foster relationships within spaces, to allow for pleasurable situations, to encourage relations between people and promote social life. Enlarging does not mean wasting. Enlarging does not mean costing more. It means inventing space for uses and going beyond the norms and standards which reduce the living space. “TRANSFORMATION IS THE OPPORTUNITY OF DOING MORE AND BETTER WITH WHAT IS ALREADY EXISTING. 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. MOREOVER, IT HAS A VERY NEGATIVE SOCIAL IMPACT. FOR US, IT IS AN ACT OF VIOLENCE.” Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal