Lacaton & Vassal named winner of Le Prix Charlotte Perriand 2027

The Créateurs Design Association & Awards (CDA) has named Pritzker Prize-winning French studio Lacaton & Vassal Architectes as recipient of Le Prix Charlotte Perriand 2027. The prize will be handed over at a ceremony on 16 January 2027 at the Shangri-La Paris.

The studio, led by architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, was recognised for its contribution to contemporary architecture through the transformation and improvement of existing buildings. The CDA said the studio's work improves "living conditions while preserving resources and architectural heritage".

Lacaton and Vassal responded with a statement invoking the prize's namesake. "Charlotte Perriand's tireless pursuit of comfort, well-being, and the pleasure of the inhabitant and of everyday life, her modernity, and her political commitment to exposing poor housing conditions and to transmission and education remain profoundly relevant today and are a source of inspiration," they said. "Her manifest spirit of openness and freedom touches us deeply. We are very happy to receive this distinction."

What is the studio's track record?

The duo founded their practice in 1989 and built a reputation on social housing and adaptive reuse (the renovation of existing structures rather than demolition and rebuild). Key projects include:

• The transformation of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris
• The Nantes School of Architecture
• The Cité du Grand Parc housing transformation in Bordeaux, completed with Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin, which won the European Union's Mies van der Rohe Award in 2019
• The renovation of the 1960s Tour Bois-le-Prêtre tower block in Paris, also with Druot, completed in 2011
• The conversion and extension of a former shipbuilding workshop into the FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais contemporary art gallery in Dunkirk

How does the award work?

Le Prix Charlotte Perriand was established in collaboration with the family of the late architect and designer. It recognises practitioners whose contributions have advanced architecture and design.

CDA co-founder Meredith Xavier framed the jury's reasoning. "In awarding Le Prix Charlotte Perriand to Lacaton & Vassal, the CDA members recognise the care and imagination with which they approach the places people call home. Their work shows how much can be gained by understanding what is already there," Xavier said.

At the same January ceremony, architect Kengo Kuma will receive the Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award 2027.

What does this add to an already crowded shelf?

Lacaton & Vassal won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2021 and the 2023 Soane Medal for architecture. Anne Lacaton separately won the 2025 Jane Drew Prize for women in architecture. Previous winners of Le Prix Charlotte Perriand include Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, who took the 2025 edition.

What the new prize changes is institutional backing for the studio's core argument: that upgrading what exists can beat tearing it down. With a global prize landscape now stacked in their favour, Lacaton and Vassal head into the January ceremony as the standard-bearers for reuse-first architecture.