circle spring 2022: Philip Ursprung and Anne Lacaton

At the April KRUH lecture, Swiss architectural theorist Philip Ursprung will be joined by last year's Pritzker Prize laureate, French architect Anne Lacaton. They will discuss forms of freedom in architecture and selected projects from the Lacaton & Vassal studio.

Philip Ursprung is a recognized architectural theorist. He has taught at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, Columbia University in New York, and the Institute of Architecture in Barcelona. He was a guest curator at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. He is currently a professor of art history and architecture at the prestigious ETH Zurich, where he headed the Institute of Architecture from 2017 to 2019. He is the author of numerous scholarly books and exhibitions, including those dedicated to the Swiss studio Herzog & de Meuron.
Anne Lacaton co-founded the architectural office Lacaton et Vassal in Bordeaux in 1987 with Jean-Philippe Vassal, which is currently based in Paris. The studio has received many awards, including the national Grand Prix for young and emerging architects (1999). In 2021, they became laureates of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for their contributions to contemporary architecture. Notable projects include the School of Architecture in Nantes (2009), the conversion of the old FRAC Dunkerque dock (2013) into a regional contemporary art museum, and the renovation of three panel buildings in Bordeaux (2016). She is also an emeritus professor at ETH Zurich. "Habitation is more than just a functional concept. It is also an expression of satisfaction, nobility, and freedom arising from the use of space. It teaches us to think about what is around us and in front of us. Architecture means constructing a multitude of situations that connect and intersect. Designing space based on the idea of habitation means shaping it from the inside, not the outside as a superficial and isolated act." Anne Lacaton, from the annotation to her Prague lecture "Experience of Space" organized by the Kruh association in 2013.