Panel Discussion: Living With / Vivre Avec
November 9, 2025 | Chicago Architecture Biennial
Living With / Vivre Avec — From Venice to Chicago
Biennial, Exhibition
Curators: Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane, with Eric Daniel-Lacombe and Martin Duplantier. Photo © Schnepp Renou
Chicago Architecture Biennial
840 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL, 60611
November 8, 2025 - January 31, 2026
Partnering with the 6th Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB6), Villa Albertine presents Living With / Vivre Avec, an exhibition originally commissioned for the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale that explores architecture’s capacity to respond to contemporary crises—climate change, social upheaval, and urban transformation.
Designed by architects Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane, in association with Éric Daniel-Lacombe and Martin Duplantier, the exhibition was first presented in Venice as the official French Pavilion of the Biennale. Presented in Chicago from November 8, 2025, to January 31, 2026, it extends that reflection and invites audiences to imagine how architecture can help sustain life amid conflict, displacement, and ecological instability.
Organized around six thematic clusters—Living with the Existing, the Immediate, the Broken, Vulnerabilities, Nature, and Combined Intelligences—Living With leads visitors through an immersive landscape of totems presenting projects and reflections from around the world. Each explores inventive ways to renew existing environments, adapt to fragility, and foster coexistence among humans, technology, and the natural world.
Developed with Chicago-based Civic Projects Architecture, the scenography reinterprets the sustainable design of the Venice Pavilion into a new, site-specific installation. Modular and reusable, the structure embodies adaptability and collective intelligence—the very principles at the heart of the exhibition’s vision.
Presented for the first time in North America, Living With resonates with CAB6’s theme, Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, curated by Florencia Rodriguez. Together, these initiatives create a shared platform for architects, thinkers, and citizens to exchange ideas and imagine more resilient ways of living.
Through Living With, Villa Albertine reaffirms its mission to foster dialogue between France and the United States, connecting the worlds of architecture, culture, and public engagement across both sides of the Atlantic.
Commissioned by Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Living With is made possible through the generous support of Saint-Gobain, a global leader in light and sustainable construction.
In partnership with
Chicago Architecture Biennial
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is dedicated to creating an international forum on architecture and urbanism. It produces year-round programs and a biennial exposition of city-wide activations for a diverse audience of designers, educators, advocates, and students. CAB’s mission is to engage and inspire professional and public audiences, highlight the transformative power of architecture and envision a future for the field that is equitable and sustainable.
