Building beyond Festival

We all need to envision the future of our territories, our professions, our cities, and our place within them. In April 2024, Leonard hosted the Building Beyond Festival, themed “Adaptation: Facing the Climate Challenge of Cities in Common.” To adapt means changing scale, because, as Eleni Myrivili — former Deputy Mayor of Athens and UN Chief Heat Officer — reminded us in her introduction, “No city is an island.” Adapting also means developing new expertise to mitigate and to repair. And finally, adapting means doing it together, especially with the inhabitants, because one thing is certain: adaptation will happen in lived-in environments. It is around this premise that A H A, invited by Leonard, designed and moderated the debate “What if adapting meant doing it together?”, featuring : Nicolas Escach, Deputy Mayor for Sustainable City, Caen, Nicolas Rio, author of Pour en finir avec la démocratie participative, Cécile Belard du Platys, CEO of Paris Habitat, Sofiane Aouchiche, Head of Operations, GTM Bâtiment. The festival closed with Frédérique Aït-Touati, theatre director, CNRS researcher, and scientific director of SPEAP, together with landscape architect Bas Smets.