We are convinced that all urban situations, all built housing surfaces, offices, warehouses, which are stigmatized, which are denounced as absolute mediocrity and that are neglected, abandoned, or at the end demolished, are specific situations, potentially able to become outstanding and wonderful territories, separate from each other, and economically very profitable.
We are convinced that the fine and precise analysis of these multiple cases, the study of their constitutions, their capabilities, their assignments and their transformations rather than their destruction, are the prerequisites for what is called: the „Sustainable Development“.
By claiming the transformation as a project attitude we fit between the rehabilitation and re-construction, in a third stage, in the same time autonomous and intermediate. The economy is the heart of it.
We want to work with the existing, with precision, by transformation, addition or superposition, with lightness and kindness, on the question of inhabiting, from the interior, with the climate and not against it.

Jean-Philippe Vassal is Principal of Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, based in Paris. Together with Anne Lacaton he formed architectural practice Lacaton & Vassal in Bordeaux in 1987. Lacaton & Vassal are known for their delicate interventions, repurposing neglected structures with apparent effortlessness. Among other recognitions they received the Grand Prix National d’Architecture in France in 2008.
Jean-Philippe Vassal is Professor of Design and Urban Regeneration at UDK Berlin since 2012. Previously he has been visiting professor at the Architecture School of Versailles (2002-2006), Architecture School of Bordeaux (1992- 1999), Peter Behrens School of Architecture at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (2005), Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) (2007-2010), Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (EPF Lausanne) (2010-2011).