''Il fera beau demain (It Will Be Nice Tomorrow) is the title of our first book, published in 1995, which opens with a manifesto of our ideas, our convictions, our hopes as young architects, and, above all, our optimism. It persented the beginnings of our search for an open relationship with the climate and nature,

It's Nice Today is the title of this book, a scientific evaluation of those convictions and our continuing hopes. We offer a thorough analysis of the climatic performance of the winter garden in a representative selection of our projects. The results confirm the intuitive vision we had three decades ago - an architecture that works with the climate, not against it. We don't have to wait until tomorrow anymore. If we want, it can be nice today.''

- Anne Lacaton, Jean-Philippe Vassal

Lacaton & Vassal are the architects who brought greenhouses from the realm of agriculture into architecture. This book tells the story of their relentless exploration of such structures as a tool for a more fluid transition between indoors and outdoors.

In a career spanning more than three decades, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal have completed more than 20 projects—both conversions and new constructions—that incorporate greenhouses and winter gardens: single-family homes, apartment complexes, cultural and commercial structures, and large scale urban developments. They have all demonstrated the efficiency of winter gardens as thermal buffers, yet because standard calculation models weren’t applicable to such designs, it was difficult to quantify their insulating effect. To better understand the positive impact of this technology, Lacaton & Vassal teamed up with environmental design consultancy Atmos Lab to make detailed, long-term measurements at four of their projects comparing their thermal performance under different conditions. This book presents the methodology and results of that endeavour, providing scientific proof that winter gardens and greenhouses can act as efficient thermal buffers, reducing heating and cooling costs while providing users with a generous space to enjoy sun, natural light, and views.

Anne Lacaton, Jean-Philippe Vassal

Ruby Press, 2024

33.5 X 23 cm, 144 pages