New to Me: Lacaton + Vassal
I just got around to reading a brief write-up on Parisan firm Lacaton + Vassal, posted on BD last Friday, and I'm walking away quite impressed. The firm's philsophy — and resulting projects — combine pragmatism, poetry, and comfort. Comfort being the operative element here. After a 17 year partnership, the firm is poised to move up an echelon with two new major projects. An architecture school in Nantes (pictured) and a business school in Bordeaux.Flexibililty has been a key element in their past work, and the Nantes school is no exception. Much of the building space will remain unprogrammed, and the its primary structure will allow for an unusually high degree of flexibility — including ramps to provide automobiles with access to all three stories of the structure.
An Exerpt describing the design process, from the "Il fera beau demain" exhibition catalog:
"...then -I love these guys.
· that magic moment when the images come back, when the two directions of thought are perfectly attuned, interlock, fuel one another, as if spellbound. (A) moment of euphoria and ease, as if miraculously and unconsciously the joyous, living part that gives the project its meaning had steered the laborious part (concerned with) development.
Born who knows where, experienced somewhere, far away, in Africa or elsewhere, in books of poetry and films, in smoke-filled bars, train compartments, airport concourses, an image, a persistent idea, that one waits for, that one delicately gathers up, that one protects, safeguards, forgets and finds again.
It stays there throughout the project and ends up being absolutely indispensable.
Architecture will be straightforward, useful, precise, cheap, free, jovial, poetic and cosmopolitan. It'll be nice tomorrow."
UPDATE:
A lot of people have come to this site after searching for "Lacaton Vassal," so for here's a little more information for you. Life Without Buildings also recommends the excellent 2G book on Lacaton Vassal.
· February 2005 issue of ICON - a great article on Lacaton Vassal
· project descriptions and photos (german) [Next Room]
· A Brief Firm Biography [ArchiLab]
· Their Palais de Tokyo [ivar hagendoorn]
· More Giant Stautes... [Life Without Buildings]
· New Uses For Ceramics [Life Without Buildings]
BLOCK BY BLOCK: JANE JACOBS & THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK - Poignant and personal, these brief recounts and interpretations of Jane Jacobs ideas illustrate the widespread impact and influence of her ideas.
SPACE METS ART / ART MEETS SPACE - This sexy monograph published by Victionary presents a series of striking exhibition spaces that demonstrate the intersection of graphics, multimedia, structure and architecture.
VERB: NATURES - Nature meets technology in this, Actar's latest Verb Boogazine. Presenting some of the most striking projects to grace the pages of the series, the work presented in Natures attempts to give us a new way to understand of our environment.
BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2007 - Guest Editor Chris Ware assembles an absolutely fantastic collection of the year's best in comics and introduced me to several new cartoonists, including the breathtaking work of Anders Nilsen.
2G BOOKS: LACATON VASSAL - I can't say enough good things about Lacaton Vassal and this catalog seems to be the only collection of their work. Great photos, great interviews, and some very beautiful, very original work
Comments on "New to Me: Lacaton + Vassal"
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Anonymous said ... (7:43 AM) :
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Pat said ... (10:42 AM) :
post a commentHi,
greetings from Czech Republic. I just write a text about a lecture of Jean Philippe Vassal, which I have seen this summer in France. I have recorded it by my digital camera - very bad quality, but understandable.
So, maybe, I can send it to You through ftp, if You are interested.
Btw nice blog,
adam
http://aa.vslib.cz/adam
there is also a magazine called 2G with an issue devoted entirely to Lacaton and Vassal. 2G is published by Gustavo Gili Editores, Spain.
L + V have created some of my favorite contemporary architecture.