Crossroads#3

Two days dedicated to broadening the horizons of architecture. On November 25 and 26, ENSASE hosts the third edition of Crossroads, an event highlighting new professional expressions of architecture. Through four roundtables and workshops led by twenty invited professionals, this edition explores “other ways than building”, showcasing approaches in which architects also act as researchers, political actors, curators, or territorial mediators. Thinking beyond the frame, redefining the role: designed for a generation of students seeking new trajectories, Crossroads highlights the discipline’s ability to generate alternative project models. The event encourages seeing architecture not only as a constructive act but as a political, social, and cultural field, addressed through four thematic axes.

A proposal by Annabelle Hagmann, at the invitation of Cédric Libert, director of ENSASE

Political engagement, representation of institutions or local authorities, urban planning, or project management: when an architect shifts position, they also shift scale. Positioned at the intersection of political, economic, and urban worlds, architects connect the concrete realities of territories with major urban development challenges. This role shift raises questions: by moving to the “other side,” can architects formulate more informed briefs, leverage tools for better urban and architectural quality, and renew practices to benefit a more engaged, equitable, and resilient society? Given architects’ natural ability to manage complexity, the answer may be yes — but only if young architects explore these paths. Are schools preparing them? What career paths exist? What obstacles remain?

Speakers: Martin Duplantier (founder, Martin Duplantier Architectes; activist in Ukraine; commissioner of the French Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2025), Simon Henry (P&MA project manager), Flavien Menu & Frédérique Barchelard (architects, founders of Wald), Hélène Reinhardt (founder, SOL Architecture & Urbanism; ACE Pyrénées-Orientales; former ACE president).

More architects are stepping outside the frame, exploring the margins and behind-the-scenes of projects, the invisible and the extraordinary. Through films, exhibitions, installations, publications, and events, they invent new ways of telling architecture’s story and showing the transformations of the built environment and their impacts. These practices, at the crossroads of art, documentary, and research, shift perspectives, questioning the conditions of production, ecological impacts, and social dynamics shaping our territories. By abandoning traditional tools — plans, sections, models — and embracing methods from other disciplines, architects expand the field of architecture. Their alternative narratives engage broader audiences and awaken collective awareness: architecture is no longer just about building; it observes, narrates, connects, and interrogates. Perhaps, before building, one must first learn to see differently.

Speakers: Margaux Darrieus (architecture critic, journalist, AMC; ENSA Paris-Malaquais), Mike Fritsh (architect, curator of the Luxembourg Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale 2025), Guillaume Meigneux (architect, filmmaker, lecturer ENSACF), Océane Ragoucy (architect, curator, author, consultant; lecturer ENSA Paris-Malaquais).

Activating sectors and networks starts with a simple observation: what we find in the market, on the street, or in a catalog always has an upstream, downstream, and territorial context. Linking resources — sometimes seen as mere “waste” — with those who transform or consume them, and with the urban forms they can generate, is a real challenge. Exploring these flows opens new perspectives: innovative logistics, production and distribution sites, and the discovery of craftspeople, industrial players, institutions, and political actors operating within a complex system. Supporting these actors in structuring sustainable and solidarity-based urban sectors produces goods that a territory truly needs. Beyond symbolic questions — what do we consume and why? — activating sectors facilitates daily life, makes spaces viable and desirable, and helps densify cities, proposing a roadmap akin to architecture itself.

Speakers: Hugo Christy (vice-president, Surface + Utiles; president, Demain Matin), Timothée Gauvin (architect, founder Studio Timothée Gauvin; partner Gauvin Studio), Pierre Janin (architect, head of Fabriques; State Architect and ACE Architect), Angélique Pagnon (urban planner, co-founder Micro-Ressources).

Architectural research is still young — barely fifteen years old. Over the past fifteen years, multiple crises have placed high expectations on the built environment. Today, mobilizing new skills, caring for inhabitants and territories, and valuing and protecting the invisible are central themes in architectural research. But what kind of research are we talking about? By the project? On the project? For the project? To illuminate or to anticipate? What bridges exist between research and built architecture? While conflicts can arise between practice and academia, it seems possible to converge toward a common language. Supporting innovation and applied research in architecture is indeed part of the new National Strategy for Architecture. The development of CIFRE theses, which promote the employment of PhD holders in architectural firms, is one example, as is the creation of partnership research chairs between agencies and universities. Hybridizing knowledge and practice allows the production of new insights. But can architectural research still be pursued without working in a firm? What new professional pathways can such research enable?

Speakers: Pauline Detavernier (Director of Research, PCA STREAM), Margotte Lamouroux (architect, researcher, lecturer, LET, ENSAPLV), Angèle Launay (architectural advisor, CAUE Côte-d’Or), Antoine Pauchon (project manager, IDHEAL).