“RESOURCES FOR A FUTURE” symposium & book fair

The TAB Symposium ‘RESOURCES FOR A FUTURE’ is unfolding in consonance with the curatorial exhibition and aims to generate genuine interdisciplinary debates. Coalescing international professionals in the field and synchronizing their voices with the local audience will demonstrate to us how we think architecture beyond territories, how we understand the resources given, and how we ideate the world in concord with each other. The list of key speakers includes Kristoffer L. Weiss and Emmanuelle Dechelette, among others.

Reserve your free ticket to the Symposium here.

A book fair will also take place in the symposium space from 12-17 on 11.10, offering a chance to get acquainted and purchase books from different publishers over Europe, whose titles are chosen in correlation with the topic of this year’s biennale. Represented are: About Books, Actar, Danish Architectural Press, Pelinu Books, Ruby Press and many more.

• 13:00-13:10 Entering words by TAB 2024 Head Curator Anhelina L. Starkova
• 13:10-13:30 Introduction of the Symposium by TAB 2024 Co-Curator and Symposium moderator Daniel A. Walser
• 13:30-13:45 Lecture by Emmanuelle Dechelette
• 13:45-14:15 Lecture by Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss
• 14:15-15:00 Intermission & book fair
• 15:00-15:30 Lecture by Sascha Roesler
• 15:30-16:00 Lecture by Søren Pihlmann
• 16:00-16:20 Lecture by Hannes Tarn (Thermory)
• 16:20-16:40 Intermission & book fair
• 16:40-17:30 Panel discussion with moderator Daniel A. Walser and all speakers
• 17:30-18:00 Installation Competition winner presentation

Speakers

Emmanuelle Dechelette (France), architect 
lecture title: “Built in Rammed Earth in a Contemporary Urban Context”

Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss (Denmark), critic, key speaker  
lecture title: “Black Dot Urbanism and the Imploding City”

Sascha Roessler (Switzerland), architectural theorist
lecture title: “The Future as a Resource” 

Søren Pihlmann (Denmark), architect 
lecture title: “Thoravej 29 : A Building Repurposing Itself”

Hannes Tarn (Estonia), Thermory, thermowood producer, TAB 2024 sponsor
lecture title: “We, catalysts of timber waste reduction”

Installation Competition winners Elisabeth Terrisse de Botton (Spain) & Matthieu Brasebin (France), Installation Competition curator Roland Reemaa (Estonia)
lecture title: “TAB Installation Competition winning project No Time To Waste”

Emmanuelle Déchelette (France) 
Built in Rammed Earth in a Contemporary Urban Context

How to build in rammed earth? How to balance the reality of the budget with the hope for biobased products? How to combine ethics and aesthetics? Emmanuelle will present her two projects, built in rammed earth material in Paris and will share her experience of building with bio-sourced materials.  

Emmanuelle Déchelette is an architect, and together with her brother a co-founder of the Paris-based office Déchelette Architects. They deeply believe in the potential of bio-sourced materials, both in terms of architectural quality, of research into the decarbonization of construction, of the enhancement of local know-how, and of their strong aesthetic and timeless power. They made their mark by building The Greenline Foundation, a rammed earth artists residency in central Paris, and are currently building several social bio and geo-based housing projects in Paris using wood, stone, earth, straw and hemp.  

Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss (Denmark) 
Black Dot Urbanism and the Imploding City

The theme of the lecture is transformation of the fossil city and adaptive re-use on an urban scale. As we are entering an era of earthly cities urbanism has to adapt to new methods, aesthetics, and an ethos directed at new dilemmas inherent to the profession. Through examples – both practical and theoretical – the lecture will sketch a possible roadmap for change. 

Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss is the director of the Danish Architectural Press, with a background in philosophy from Copenhagen University, and a founding partner of Wallner Weiss. In 2016, he served as the curator of the Danish contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale. His work and research focus on the intersection of architecture and philosophy. He is the author of more than twenty books on contemporary architecture and urbanism. 

Sascha Roesler (Switzerland) 
The Future as a Resource

An important change is currently taking place in architectural theory, in which the category of ‘future’ is increasingly replacing the dominant role of ‘history’. While history has provided a solid understanding of temporality and development in architecture in recent decades, the current ecological upheavals (climate change, energy transition, etc.) are challenging this status. As the historian Dipesh Chakrabarty has argued, the future (in the 21st century) eludes ‘the grasp of historical sensibility’ due to the unprecedented nature of the climate crisis. In the field of tension between ‘experience and expectation’ (Reinhart Koselleck), architecture is increasingly falling under the spell of what is to come. New, not primarily historical methods and concepts of futuring are therefore called for. In his lecture, Sascha Roesler will deal with newly emerging forms of knowledge about the future in the context of current ecological-local challenges and pose the question of the future (in) architectural theory. 

Sascha Roesler is an architect and architectural theorist specializing in the intersections of architecture, ethnography, and science and technology studies. He is currently an Associate Professor for Theory of Urbanization and Urban Environments at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland, and has led significant research projects on architecture and urban climates. Roesler has published extensively on global architecture, sustainability, and environmental technologies, and his work has received several prestigious awards, including the Swiss Art Award for Architecture in 2012. 

Søren Pihlmann (Denmark)
Thoravej 29: A Building Repurposing Itself

Due to a culture of disposability, an overwhelming number of resources have already been invested in the world. Through his ongoing transformation project Thoravej 29, alongside other recent works, Søren Pihlmann presents an architectural gaze which explores novel materials while re-valuating the ones at hand. Examining the potential in both overproduced and underestimated materials, he combines them based on their inherent properties, forming compositions that present both recognition and revelation. By challenging traditional structures, reimagining the value of materials, and crafting dynamic stories within built environments, his practice preserves the essence of existing structures while imbuing them with new narratives. Ensuring their continuous existence requires interest in their ongoing journey – from gravel pits, fields, and laboratories to built components and vice versa.  

Søren Pihlmann is the founder of the Copenhagen-based office pihlmann architects. Over the past years, he has made his mark on the Danish architectural scene with a series of transformation projects that have strongly influenced contemporary discourse. His work is characterized by an explorative approach to materials and components. Pihlmann was recently appointed curator for the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Earlier this year, his project House14a received Denmark’s most prestigious architectural prize, the Årets Arne, named after the late modernist Arne Jacobsen. Additionally, in 2023, he was shortlisted for three Architectural Review awards, where House14a was commended at the House awards.   

Hannes Tarn (Estonia)
We, catalysts of timber waste production

What is waste in the context of the timber sector? How does waste as a resource turn products into projects? Why does the sector avoid producing products from waste?  Hannes Tarn will answer these questions and share his experiences and thoughts on what we can do to better utilize and minimize timber waste. 

Hannes Tarn studied International Economics at the University of Tartu and is currently studying entrepreneurship and business administration at the Estonian Business School. Since 2004 Tarn has been involved in the research and development of environmental technologies and co-founded an innovative timber technologies development company Bolefloor (2009). He is currently the head of research and development at Thermory since 2017. The result of his work has been named among the “Top 50 Architectural Products in the Last 50 Years” and “The Best Floorcovering” by Detail magazine in 2011.