TAB 2026 Symposium x EKA

Tickets

TAB 2026 Symposium
10–11 September 2026

Day 1: Estonian Academy of Arts Conference “To Be Continued…”

Day 2: “Sounds Expensive”

Estonian Academy of Arts
Põhja pst 7, Tallinn, Estonia

Symposium Day I “To Be Continued…From Scattered Facts to Shared Concerns”

10 September, 9:00-17:15

The first day of the TAB 2026 Symposium, titled To Be Continued…, is dedicated to the EKA Arh Conference. Under the theme From Scattered Facts to Shared Concerns, the conference focuses on one of the central questions facing architecture and urban development today: how do we move forward when starting from scratch is no longer a viable option? While knowledge about climate transition, resource limits, and the built environment is abundant, translating that knowledge into collective action remains a challenge. Rather than asking only what comes next, the conference asks what can and should continue.

Across urban, building, and material scales, international speakers and researchers explore adaptation, reuse, and transformation in the built environment. The programme brings together perspectives from architecture, planning, construction, and research to discuss how existing places, buildings, and resources can support meaningful change, and how scattered knowledge can become shared concerns capable of shaping long-term action.

Day One Programme

09:30–09:45 Opening Words
09:45–10:30 Transformation Keynote

Aleksi Neuvonen (Demos Helsinki, Finland)
Finnish futures thinker and co-founder of Demos Helsinki, whose work explores societal transformation, post-growth futures, and new models of collective action.

10:30–10:45 Coffee Break
10:45–12:15 | Parallel Sessions

Main Hall – Session I: Spatial and Architectural Transformation
This session explores processes of spatial transformation across urban and architectural scales, examining how cities, landscapes, and built environments adapt to changing social, ecological, and cultural conditions. Contributions address themes such as urban restructuring, adaptive reuse, spatial continuity, and the relationship between territorial systems, public space, and architectural intervention.

Monumental studio – Session I: Prefabrication, Retrofit, and Adaptive Reuse
This session examines prefabricated and industrialized approaches to the transformation of existing buildings and urban fabric. Contributions explore themes such as adaptive reuse, modular retrofit systems, circular renovation strategies, and the extension of building lifecycles, addressing how contemporary construction methods can support more sustainable and resource-conscious forms of spatial transformation.

12:15–13:15 Lunch
13:15–14:00 Adaptation Keynote

Hiroto Kobayashi (Keio University, Tokyo, Japan)
Japanese architect, professor at Keio University, and founder of Kobayashi Maki Design Workshop, known for his work on adaptive reuse, post-disaster reconstruction, and resource-conscious architecture.

14:00–14:15 Coffee Break
14:15–15:45 | Parallel Sessions

Main Hall – Session II: Material Systems and Circular Construction
This session focuses on material systems, construction processes, and circular approaches to the built environment. Contributions examine themes such as material reuse, prefabrication, tectonics, fabrication methods, and resource-aware design strategies, addressing how construction systems can support more adaptive and sustainable spatial practices.

Monumental studio – Parallel Session II: Participatory Planning and Urban Transformation
This session explores participatory approaches to urban transformation through digital mapping, GIS-based spatial analysis, and collaborative planning tools. Contributions address themes such as tactical urban interventions, community engagement, and urban greening strategies, examining how localized actions and participatory processes can inform broader spatial and policy frameworks and vice versa.

15:45–16:00 Coffee Break
16:00–16:45 Panel Discussion
16:45–17:00 Closing Words

Symposium Day II “Sounds Expensive”

11 September, 9:30-18:00

Not everything is always as it seems. A first impression may prove misleading; simple flat-pack furniture instructions can take hours to follow; quiet, introspective people may sing with unexpected force; and a cheaply constructed building can become expensive over time. In architecture, such illusions are daily companions, especially when factoring cost into architectural practice and thinking. Beyond the illusion of cheapness, where reduced upfront costs postpone expenses and responsibilities into the future, the accompanying symposium extends this inquiry into how architects navigate economies, constraints and systems of values.  

The symposium is structured as a practice-driven debate connected to TAB 2026’s main exhibition. It brings together exhibition participants to present their work and situate their practices in dialogue with others through panel discussions. Each session is opened by invited architectural thinkers giving keynotes that introduce thematic blocks. working closely with the Biennale’s theme. Writer, curator and architectural critic Phineas Harper considers how much illusion is embedded in narratives of budgetary scarcity; Professor of Architecture Claire Zimmerman reflects on the relation between cost, access, class and intention; and architects and designers Thomas Flores and Mathias Palazzi propose an updated understanding of architectural frugality through the lens of excess.  

This might sound expensive, but, as it goes with illusions, the tickets to attend are affordable – reserve your early bird tickets here.

Speakers:

Thomas Flores & Mathias Palazzi – architects/researchers (FR)

IG: @mathias.palazzi / jeune.thomas)

Thomas Flores and Mathias Palazzi are, respectively, an architect-urbanist and a designer. In 2024, they began a joint research project at the GERPHAU laboratory in Paris La Villette, with the aim of defining the scope of their work and finding an alternative approach to the prevailing discourse on ‘frugal architecture’, which they feel is disconnected from both the essence and the practical realities of the discipline. This research led to the publication of a thesis and various lectures in academic settings in France and the Netherlands (ENSAPLV, EAVT & Rietveld academie ). It is continuing throughout 2026 at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands, through which they recently published the book “Dialectic of Austerity”.

Phineas Harper – writer, critic, and curator (UK)

Phineas Harper is a writer, broadcaster, and sculptor. They are a regular contributor to the Guardian and the founder of the Architecture of Repair collective. They were previously the chief executive of the NGO Open City and the chief curator of the Oslo Architecture Triennale. They co-founded New Architecture Writers with the Historian Tom Wilkinson and live in Greenwich, London, with two cats: Kaspar and Alvar.

Claire Zimmerman – Professor of Architecture, University of Toronto (CA)

Claire Zimmerman is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Toronto, where she directs the PhD programme in Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Her current projects include work on industrial architecture, a collective research project on The Costs of Architecture, and a series of published writings and books, most recently Albert Kahn Inc. Architecture, Labor, and Industry, 1905–1961 (MIT Press, 2025) or Architecture against Democracy: Histories of the Nationalist International (University of Minnesota Press, 2024). Since 2026, she has been the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH) and has continuously engaged with evaluating and supervising dissertations.

Panel participants:

Tõnis Savi (EE) – architect/researcher

Mantas Peteraitis Architecture Studio (LT) – architecture studio

studio TAKK – architecture and research studio, Barcelona / New York (ES)

Andri Putri & Eugene Ong of O—–P (US) – architecture practice

Helen Rix Runting, Rutger Sjögrim of SECRETARY (SW) – architecture practice

asphalt / Kollektiv für Architektur — architecture collective (AUT)

KavaKava – architecture office (EE)

Avarrus Architects – architectural office (FI)

Max von Werz Architects – architecture practice (MX)

Salto – architectural office (EE)