Anne Lacaton ///

born in 1955 in Saint Pardoux la Rivière. Architect, Paris. 1980 diploma at the École d’architecture in Bordeaux. 1984 degree in town planning at Bordeaux University. Together with Jean Philippe Vassal she founds the office Lacaton Vassal at Bordeaux in 1987. The practice has gained numerous awards, among others the nomination of the “Mies van der Rohe Award 1997 – Barcelona” for their office building in Grenoble, the Grand Prix National d’Architecture Jeune Talent of the French cultural ministry in 1999 and they were finalists of the “Mies van der Rohe Award 2003 – Barcelona” for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Built projects are among others the House Latapie in Floriac (1993), the House in Lège, Cap Ferret (1998) and the office building in Nantes (2002). Publications e.g. "10x10: 10 Critics, 100 Architects", Phaidon, London, 2000, "Modern House 2", Phaidon, London, 2000, Verb, architecture boogazine, Actar, Barcelona, 2001. In the wintersemester 03/04 she is guest professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

Shrinking Cities - Reinventing Urbanism /// by Anne Lacaton (january 2004)

The de-densification and shrinkage phenomenom is a new situation, result of massive economical crashes,that has caused huge human damages. In spite of the low knowledge I have of this situation of shrinking cities, I understand that it is a very complicated and tricky situation. If I can imagine the implications on the urbanism and urban space, more difficult is to assess all the others implications and consequences that this situation causes on economy, social relationships, education, culture. All these dimensions are completely connected and must be considered absolutely linked in the research of ideas and new possibilities of solutions. It is in my opinion the major issue and the goal of this competition. I also expect that the thought, the research that has to be developped necessarely in this specific situation will be of benefit over the case of the skrinking cities in bringing new ideas and new attitudes applicable to situations of expanding cities. In a positive way to consider the situation I also think that this competition can become an opportunity to reinvent urbanism in general.




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