Through Jean Nouvel’s projects, from Les Bains des Docks in Le Havre to the Shenzhen Opera House, Dominique Alba explores architecture’s ability to reveal a place. Transformation involves not only buildings but also their uses and the way they are perceived by those who inhabit them.

Alexandre Chemetoff explores the transitions between what already exists and what a project introduces. Drawing in particular on his work on Le Havre’s seafront, he shows how these in-between spaces open up possibilities for dialogue between architecture, landscape and the realities of a place.

Fiona Meadows introduces Mini Maousse, a competition that brings micro-architecture into dialogue with social issues. Between furniture and buildings, small-scale projects can transform public space and residents’ everyday practices.

Oriane Durand and Cécile Gaudard present a reflection on the future of villages, developed through the Growing Villages competition. Cécile Gaudard’s project transforms a ski resort into a site for cheese production, giving new purpose to a landscape shaped by human activity.

With Les gens des lieux, Dorothée Navarre and Marc Vatinel design temporary installations in overlooked spaces in Le Havre. These architectural and landscape experiments invite residents to make places their own in new ways, for the duration of a season.

Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane present Living Landscape, which converts a former landfill in Reykjavik into an ecological neighbourhood. Through Community House in Knokke-Heist, they also explore how a building with multiple uses can revitalise a neighbourhood.

Julien Berthier questions the artist’s role in urban design through projects that intervene directly in public space. His research into the bollard, a ubiquitous yet rarely noticed object, shifts our attention towards the everyday forms of the city.

Isabelle Daëron imagines works in relation to the resources of their surroundings, such as water, wind and light. She questions how an installation can tell the story of a natural phenomenon and establish a relationship with a neighbourhood undergoing change.

Laurent Dumas presents “1 immeuble, 1 œuvre” (“One Building, One Artwork”), an initiative that connects construction and renovation with art commissions. It commits property developers to making space for art in buildings and in the everyday surroundings of their users.

Lucie Marinier explores the stages in the life of an artwork in public space, from its selection and production to its everyday existence. She invites us to think about art over time, in relation to the places where it is installed.

Fériel Fodil introduces Villa Hegra, a Franco-Saudi institution dedicated to cultural exchange. Residencies for artists and researchers, creative practice and education help build connections between the community of AlUla and international audiences.

Nelson Pernisco brings the labour history of the Wonder factories into dialogue with the artists’ collective of the same name. He explores the experiences of work and struggle that run through both, and their influence on his own practice.

Nicolas Détrie presents the commitments and methods of Yes We Camp, which brings collective energy to places built around solidarity. Its projects combine social, cultural and ecological uses, questioning the possibility of a less consumerist everyday life.

Drawing on Vent des Forêts in the Meuse, Pascal Yonet explores the presence of contemporary art in agricultural and forest landscapes. He considers how artworks and paths can bring residents and municipalities together around a shared project.

Peter Gorschlüter introduces Folkwang and the City, a festival created in Essen in 2022. By taking the museum out into the city, the project seeks to encounter its different communities and strengthen their connections with the institution.

Through FabBRICK, Clarisse Merlet transforms worn clothing and fabric offcuts into materials for design and architecture. Her journey shows how an initiative developed step by step can address wasted resources and grow into a collective endeavour.

Emmanuel Tibloux and Ariane Brioist present a design programme developed with people working on the ground. Spanning six types of environment, from forests to coastlines, it responds to the specific needs of each place and reconsiders the role of creative practice in public action.

Paul Emilieu Marchesseau connects design, learning and the experience of the city. Through Emilieu Studio’s projects, he explores play and collective design as ways of discovering our surroundings and learning through engagement with a place.

Vianney Delourme invites us to reconnect with the Seine beyond Paris, following the landscapes explored by Monet all the way to Le Havre. Accessible by train, these walks encourage residents of Greater Paris to rediscover a river whose banks have become disconnected from their everyday lives.

Meriem Chabani explores practices of care, preservation and transmission that are often marginalised. Drawing on her research, she considers architecture as a mediator between soils, bodies and narratives, with the potential to nurture sustainable urban ecologies.

Antoine Lagneau explores brownfield sites, vacant land and in-between spaces that escape urban standardisation. From urban agriculture to artistic practice, these places accommodate initiatives that invent other ways of living in and shaping the city.

Noémie Behr introduces the Bureau des guides du GR2013 and its artistic explorations of the Marseille metropolitan area. Walking and shared stories become ways of getting to know places, building community and inhabiting a territory together.

Guillaume Aubry brings his work as an architect, scenographer and artist into dialogue through a selection of projects. He explores how a personal experience of landscape can become a shared one.

Antonella Tufano examines how gender changes our understanding of cities and architecture. Drawing on discussions from a series held at the Cité de l’architecture, she considers practical possibilities for transforming spaces and their uses.

Max Yvetot begins with a paradox: a major global port adjoins a relatively medium-sized city. He explores the distinctive features of the Le Havre urban area to shed light on its role, its tensions and the elements that shape its identity.

Marie-Pierre Bonniol approaches the city through cinematic storytelling and fiction. Through short films and a programming project at Le Volcan, she explores the uses and representations of urban space, with particular attention to audiences and childhood.

Maxence Gourdault-Montagne considers the city as a living whole that extends beyond plans. He presents experimentation as a way of making housing desirable, notably through Le 139, a place for reflection and for testing new ways of living.

Grégory Chatonsky questions the place of cities in a world where the conditions for inhabiting the Earth are deteriorating. His talk takes as its starting point the proliferation of crises and the questions they raise about our urban existence.

Jean-Denis Salesse examines the relationship between the city and the port: their origins, their interdependencies and what each brings to the other. This reflection on a port utopia invites us to consider their development as a shared history.