Organised around the exhibition Form Follows Transformation: Moments that Redefine Europe’s Existing Buildings, which premiered at the UIA World Congress of Architects in Barcelona in June 2026, this round table will open the debate on the future of the existing building stock. With 85 to 95% of today’s buildings expected to still be standing in 2050, renovating, adapting and reusing what already exists has become a priority in the face of the combined housing and climate crises.
Drawing on concrete European and regional projects, architects, clients and local stakeholders will discuss four questions:
- Preserve and reveal: what should be kept of a place, and how can a new narrative be built around it?
- Living in the existing: adding storeys, densifying, converting offices and industrial buildings into housing
- Removing barriers: regulatory and financial obstacles, and European levers
- Making it possible: skills, commissioning and resident participation in support of sober, inclusive transformations
Speakers
- Elizabeth Gossart, architect, Vice-President of the Architects’ Council of Europe
- Reto Gmür, architect, Chair of the exhibition jury, member of the ACE Executive Board
- Mathieu Berteloot, architect, Hart Berteloot – Atelier Architecture Territoire, Associate Professor at ENSAP Lille
- Simon Delloue, architect and urban planner, Atelier MA
- Gaëlle Hamonic, architect, Hamonic + Masson & Associés
- Delphine Droussent, Architecture Adviser, DRAC Hauts-de-France (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs)
- Anissa Baderi, Deputy Mayor for Housing and the Lille Low-Carbon Pact (tbc)
Practical information
- Where: CAUE du Nord, 98 rue des Stations, Lille, France
- When: Thursday 19 November 2026
- Registration required: register here
The event is in French.
