The French Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale moves to Chicago
Published on 3 November 2025
From Venice to Chicago, the French Pavilion invites us to "live with" the challenges of our times: social and climate change, resource scarcity and urban transformation.
After its presentation in Venice, the French Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennial, curated by the Institut français, continues its journey in Chicago with Living With / Vivre Avec, an exhibition exploring architecture's ability to respond to contemporary issues, as a vehicle for dialogue, innovation and sustainability.
Commissioned by Villa Albertine, the French Institute, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, this traveling exhibition is presented thanks to the support of Saint-Gobain, world leader in lightweight and sustainable construction.
Presented from November 8, 2025 to January 31, 2026, Living With / Vivre Avec extends the reflections initiated in Venice. Conceived by the Pavilion's curators, architects Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane - in association with Eric Daniel-Lacombe and Martin Duplantier - the exhibition explores how architecture can help preserve life in a world marked by instability.
"How do we inhabit a world disrupted by climate upheaval, population displacement, resource scarcity?", ask the curators. "Living With / Vivre Avec explores how architecture can become an act of resilience rather than resistance."
Reportage
"Living with" is revealed through a video report tracing the history of the project, from its conception to its presentation to the public, with commentary by the exhibition curators, architects Dominique Jakob, Brendan MacFarlane, Éric Daniel-Lacombe and Martin Duplantier.
The exhibition
In its Chicago edition, Living With / Vivre Avec is transformed into an immersive landscape of ideas, inviting visitors to consider how architecture can help us navigate a world facing climate disruption, social mutation and urban transformation.
Organized around six themes - Living with the Existing, Proximities, the Damaged, Vulnerabilities, Nature and Combined Intelligences - the exhibition guides visitors through a forest of totems featuring international projects and thinking. Each totem highlights inventive architectural responses that renew existing environments, adapt to fragility and encourage coexistence between humans, technology and the natural world.
Presented for the first time in North America, the Chicago edition is part of the city's dynamic architectural and social fabric. It resonates with the theme of the 6th Chicago Architecture Biennial, Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, curated by Florencia Rodriguez, creating a common platform for architects, thinkers and citizens to imagine sustainable ways of living, between two storms.
The scenography
Developed by the curators in collaboration with Civic Projects Architecture, the Chicago scenography reinterprets the sustainable language of the Venice Pavilion through a novel installation, designed specifically for the site. The totem-based structure forms an open, navigable landscape, where visitors circulate among modular, reusable elements made from lightweight, low-impact materials.
Reflecting the spirit of Living With / Vivre Avec, the scenography embodies adaptability and collective intelligence, principles that connect architecture to the ecological and social ecosystems in which it is embedded.
Curators and production
- Curators: Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane, in association with Eric Daniel-Lacombe and Martin Duplantier
- Scenography and installations: Civic Projects Architecture
- Original commission: Institut français pour la 19e Biennale d'architecture de Venise
- Commissioned by Chicago: Villa Albertine, French Institute for Culture and Education
Public Rendezvous
A roundtable discussion around Living With / Vivre Avec will be held on Sunday, November 9, 2025, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at 840 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611.
The discussion will explore architecture's ability to respond to today's polycrisis - a world of increasing conflict, unpredictable climates and mass displacement. Speakers will consider how architecture can help sustain life in a context of instability, and how these issues are mobilizing not just experts, but communities everywhere.
- Moderators
Dominique Jakob & Brendan MacFarlane, architects, Jakob+MacFarlane Architecture, France - Speakers
Alissa Anderson, Director of Publications and Exhibitions, Studio Gang, USA
Ehsan Baharlou, Professor, University of Virginia School of Architecture, USA
Lucas Hamilton, Manager Applied Building Sciences (R&D unit), Saint-Gobain, United States
Glyn Lewis, Director and Architect, Renewal Development, Canada
Christopher Maurer, Architect, Redhouse Studio architecture, United States
Zenon Radewych, Architect, WZMH Architects, Canada
Press representatives will be able to meet and interview the curators and speakers on November 8 and 9, 2025.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is North America's leading architecture and design exhibition, fostering dialogue about the built environment through international collaboration and innovation.
Villa Albertine is a French cultural institution dedicated to artistic and intellectual exchange between the United States, France and beyond. Through residencies, public programs and publications, it fosters interdisciplinary dialogue in the arts, ideas and culture within ten American cities.
The world leader in lightweight and sustainable construction, Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and services for the construction and industrial markets. Its integrated solutions for the renovation of public and private buildings, lightweight construction and the decarbonization of construction and industry are developed through a process of continuous innovation and combine sustainability and performance. The Group, which will celebrate its 360th anniversary in 2025, remains more committed than ever to its raison d'être: "Making the World a Better Home".
Jakob + MacFarlane is a Paris-based architectural practice led by Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane. Renowned for its innovative, experimental and context-sensitive designs, the firm explores the intersections between architecture, urbanism and technology, creating projects that respond to contemporary social and environmental issues.
Eric Daniel-Lacombe is a French architect and urban planner, professor and holder of the "Nouvelles urbanités face aux risques naturels" chair at ENSA Paris-La Villette. He leads resilient architecture projects, advises municipalities and designs flood-resistant urban developments. Author of Towards an Architecture for the Health of the Living.
Martin Duplantier is an architect and urban planner with offices in Paris, Bordeaux, Lviv and Kyiv. His work reinvents architecture as a catalyst for collective, post-conflict and post-carbon transformation. He also teaches at the Kharkiv School of Architecture and is a member of ARCH4UA (Architecture for Ukraine).
Civic Projects Architecture is a Chicago-based design agency committed to sustainable, social and collaborative architecture. The agency designs innovative and ecologically responsible structures that connect communities and promote adaptive and resilient design solutions.
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