"Vivre avec / Living with" proposes a cycle of 6 conferences organized in several locations in Venice, from June to November 2025, crossing the temporality of the seasons throughout the biennial. Moderated by Madeleine Houbart - Secretary General of AFEX: Architectes Français à l'Export -, the aim of these conferences is to encourage dialogue between speakers on the six themes of "Living with" and their specific issues. Based on the words and achievements of national and international architects, this cycle will trace the paths of a new architectural creation in the face of global uncertainty.

Presentation of the 6 conferences

Living with... "Vulnerabilities": Thursday June 5, 2025, 5:30pm - Palazzo Zorzi

Moderated by Eric Daniel-Lacombe, co-curator of the French Pavilion and Madeleine Houbart, AFEX General Secretary.

With the participation of:

• Nicolas Bauduceau - Director of Public Funds and Risk Prevention, CCR (Caisse Centrale de Réassurance)
• Pierpaolo Campostrini - Managing Director of CORILA - Venice Lagoon Research Consortium
• Iris Chervet - Landscape and urban designer, founder of Atelier Iris Chervet
• Matthieu Duperrex - Author, artist and lecturer at ENSA Marseille
• Irati Lasa Amo - Architect and urban planner, co-founder of agence Ruée
• Jihana Nassif - Architect and urban planner, co-founder of agence Ruée
• Grégory Quenet - Professor of environmental history, Université Paris-Saclay

With the support and participation of CCR (Caisse Centrale de Réassurance) and Leonard, VINCI Group's foresight and innovation platform.

Living with... the "Damaged" - Friday, August 29, 2025, 5:30pm - Palazzo Zorzi

Moderated by Martin Duplantier, co-curator of the French Pavilion and Madeleine Houbart, AFEX general secretary.

With the participation of:

• Ahmad Gharbieh - Head of the Critical Mapping team, Beirut Urban Lab

Bohdan Kryzhanovsky - Architect, author of AfterWarBogdana Kosmina - Architect, artist and curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion

• Christophe Millet - President of the Conseil national de l'Ordre des architectes
• Sina Nassiry - Head of Emerging Risks, CCR (Caisse Centrale de Réassurance)
• Louis- Cyprien Rials - Artist

Tetiana Stoliarenko - Advisor to the Mayor of Kharkiv

• Isabelle Thomas - Professor, Université de Montréal

With the support and participation of CCR (Caisse Centrale de Réassurance).

Living with... the "Existing" - Friday, September 26, 2025, 5:30pm - Palazzo Zorzi

What if resilience didn't start with what we build, but with how we reimagine what we already have? In the face of urban growth, climate challenges and resource scarcity, this conference explores how rethinking what we already have can pave the way for more sustainable and resilient futures. Rather than starting from scratch, it questions the potential of reusing, regenerating and adding value to heritage.

Moderated by Martin Duplantier, co-curator of the French Pavilion and Madeleine Houbart, secretary general of AFEX.

With the participation of:

• Tetiana Balukova - Head of the Heritage Department of the City of Lviv, Ukraine
• Franck Boutté - Architect and Environmental Consultant, Atelier Franck Boutté, France
• Katie Cotellon - Director of Design and User Experience, Saint-Gobain Recherche Paris, France
  • Franck Descoubes - Director General of Urban Planning, City of Bordeaux, France
  • Oleg Drozdov - Architect and teacher, Kharkiv School of Architecture, Ukraine

Abdulrahman Gazzaz - Urban planner and Architect, Bricklab, Saudi ArabiaAlberto Roman - Architect, Masae Analytics, France

• Chris Younès - Philosopher and Professor, France

📍 Palazzo Zorzi (Castello 4930) - Free admission subject to availability.
Conference streamed live on Instagram: @martinduplantier.architects

With the support of Saint-Gobain.

Required registration

Architecture in Proximities - Thursday, October 9, 2025, 3pm - ACP - Palazzo Franchetti

What is the role of architecture in times of polycrisis? How and why do notions of proximity and immediacy inspire us to work in a spirit of care and hospitality towards those facing global vulnerabilities?

The French and Qatari Pavilions, along with the Art Mill Museum, co-present Architecture in Proximities, a conference addressing contemporary issues facing architects today.

Moderated by Dominique Jakob, co-curator of Vivre avec / Living with, the French Pavilion exhibition in the Giardini della Biennale; Aurélien Lemonier and Sean Anderson, co-curators of Beyti Beytak. My Home is Your Home. La mia casa è la tua casa, the Qatar Pavilion exhibition at ACP - Palazzo Franchetti and in the Giardini della Biennale.

With the participation of:

• Raza Ali Dada - Architect, Nayyar Ali Dada & Associates, Pakistan
• Tania Concko - Architect-urban planner, Founder of Tania Concko Architects Urbanists and Professor, Netherlands
• Émilie Gascon - Architect, Professor at ENSA Versailles, France

Guillaume Hébert - Architect-urban planner, Cofounder of Une Fabrique de la Ville, France

• Randa A. Mahmoud - Architect-urban planner, Director of the School of Architecture and Design, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Salima Naji - Architect and Anthropologist, Morocco
• Ala Tannir - Architect and Curator, Lebanon
• Paola Vigano - Architect, Urban Planner and Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Italy-Switzerland
• Ola Znad - Architect, Urban Planner and Researcher, United Arab Emirates

📍 Practical information

ACP - Palazzo Franchetti (2847 Fondamenta Narisi), Sala del Portego. Free admission subject to availability. Doors close at 3pm.

Live stream: Instagram @jakobmacfarlane

Required registration

Living with... the "United Intelligences" - Friday, October 24, 2025, 5:30pm - Palazzo Zorzi

In a world marked by permanent instability and interdependence, we need to move from singular expertise to shared intelligence, and from fixed forms to responsive systems.

What does it mean for architecture to think with others, with ecologists, engineers, social scientists and communities? With non-human agents, planetary dynamics and algorithmic agents?
How does the role of the architect evolve when design becomes co-written by inhabitants, fed by data and intertwined with living processes?
What kind of architecture becomes possible when we stop working on the world and start working with it?

Moderated by Brendan MacFarlane, co-curator of the French Pavilion and Madeleine Houbart, general secretary of AFEX

With the participation of:

• Marie-Ange Brayer - Curator, Head of the Design and Industrial Prospective Department, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, France

• Philippe Chiambaretta - Architect and Urban Planner, Founder of PCA-STREAM, France

• Pascal Gontier - Architect and Founder of Pascal Gontier Architectes, France

• Alexander Fil - Architect, Co-founder of F2 Bureau, Lecturer at the Design Department of the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts (Ukraine) and Partner of WZMH Architects (Canada).

• Klaus K. Loenhart - Architect and Landscape Designer, Co-founder of Terrain: Integral Designs and Professor at Technische Universität Graz, Austria

• Philippe Rahm - Architect, Founder of Philippe Rahm Architectes and Visiting Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, France/Switzerland

• Ingrid Taillandier, architect, founder of the ITAR agency, teacher and Laure Cardin, architect at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles and Master's students at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles.

📍 Practical information

Palazzo Zorzi (Castello 4930). Free admission subject to availability.
 

Live feed: Instagram @jakobmacfarlane

Required registration

Living with... "Nature and the Living" - Friday, November 21, 2025, 5:30pm - Palazzo Zorzi

Moderated by Éric Daniel-Lacombe, co-curator of the French Pavilion and Madeleine Houbart, general secretary of AFEX

With the participation of (to be confirmed):

• Stig L. Andersson - Landscape architect, founder of SLA and professor, Denmark
• Nicolas Bauduceau - Director of Public Funds and Risk Prevention, CCR, France
• Michel Conan - Landscape historian, France
• Bernard Desmoulin - Architect, member of the Académie d'architecture, France
  • Cécile Gaudard- Architect, specialist in sustainable design, France
  • Trung Mai - Architect, researcher in ecological urbanism, Vietnam

Éric Piolle - Politician, France

• Jana Revedin - Architect, theorist, UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Architecture, Italy
• Xin Wu - Art historian and curator, USA

📍 Practical information
Palazzo Zorzi (Castello 4930). Free admission subject to availability.

Live feed: Instagram @edlarchitecture

With the support of the Caisse Centrale de Réassurance (CCR) and Groupe 3F.

Registration required

Starting at 7pm, Groupe 3F will announce the results of the ideas competition Conforts 2050: readapting housing to climates.

The evening will continue with a conference devoted to the challenges of housing in the face of climate issues.