🇯🇵 ENSA Paris-la Villette on Japanese time. A week of dialogue and exchange
Archive photos – © Marc Bourdier, Jonathan Bruter, Louis-Pierre Grosbois, Yann Nussaume and Justine Simonot
ENSA Paris-la Villette is delighted to welcome a large delegation from its Japanese partner universities from March 9 to 16: The University of Tokyo, Meiji University, Chiba University, Tokyo City University, Institute of Science Tokyo, Kyoto University, Kyushu University.
Their visit, made possible thanks to funding from the European Union’s Erasmus+ program, is accompanied by a number of events that will benefit the school’s students, alumni and teaching staff, most of which will also be open to the general public. Course presentations, round tables and conferences, as well as an exhibition, will provide ample opportunity for meetings and exchanges.
This event is intended both as a retrospective celebrating the educational, scientific and human relations that have linked ENSAPLV and its Japanese academic partners for several decades, and as an opportunity to initiate new research and educational projects co-constructed on promising themes for the future.
The full program will soon be available on the ENSA Paris-la Villette website.
Mark your calendars now for a few highlights:
- March 10, round table at ENSAPLV tracing the history of the school’s partnerships with Japan, followed at 6:00 pm by the opening of theexhibitionAnatomie des liens. The secrets of an enduring relationship between ENSAPLV and Japan;
- March 11, round table at ENSAPLV to mark the 15th anniversary of the Tōhoku earthquake;
- on March 16 at 7:00 pm, architects Takaharu and Yui Tezuka give a lecture at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine as part of the Entretiens de Chaillot program.
- from March 9 to 16, some twenty presentations by Japanese lecturers as part of ENSAPLV’s academic program.
Event partners
News
Concrete Schools Trophy
Entry deadline: 31/10/2026
The Trophée Béton Écoles invites future architecture professionals to consider the aesthetic, technical and environmental qualities of concrete.
It is organized by the Bétocib association, CIMbéton and the Fondation École Française du Béton, under the patronage of the French Ministry of Culture, in partnership with the Maison de l’architecture Île-de-France and the AAIIA association.
4th edition of [Ré]inventer l'existant
Deadline for teacher registration: midnight, March 15, 2026
Deadline for transmission of projects selected by teachers: midnight, July 14, 2026Co-organized by the DRIEAT and the DRAC d’Île-de-France since 2023, this competition, which is open to students at architecture schools in the Paris region, rewards the best projects for the architectural and energy-efficient transformation and renovation of existing buildings.
It aims to acculturate these future architects to the design of a transformation project by confronting them with real built sites. The projects are carried out as part of their studies, with the support of teachers who help them discover the subtleties and richness of working with existing architecture, while raising their awareness of buildings’ energy needs and ways of reducing them.
Archi Jeunes 2026 competition: "Transformations
Deadline for entries: April 1, 2026
The competition is open to architecture students at the end of their studies (Master 2) or ADE graduates in 2025. They must enter as a team of two to four members.Valode & Pistre launches the 3rd edition of its Archi Jeunes competition, on the theme of “Transformations”.
The 2026 event is designed to highlight the transformation of existing buildings, seen as a major lever for innovation, sustainability and contemporary creation. Candidates are invited to give new meaning, use and quality to four emblematic sites in France, which will be unveiled once the applications have been validated.
COAL Student Award 2026: The Night
Application deadline: April 28, 2026
Created in 2019, the Student COAL Prize aims to support students from Schools in the artistic and cultural field who are experimenting with and proposing concrete, creative solutions to the ecological transition.
The theme of the 2026 edition is “Night”.
Two prizes are on offer this year: the winning student receives a two-month residency worth 5,000 euros in one of France’s 350 nature reserves. The three nominated students also receive an invitation to take part in the Regenerative Academy. This unique masterclass, created and piloted for the new MAIF Métamorphoses Prize, is dedicated to transformative artistic practices in and with nature, biodiversity and public engagement.
The call for applications is open to all students who have completed 2 years of higher education, whatever their practice and field of study (design and applied arts, architecture and landscape, visual arts, music, dance, theater, circus, puppetry, cinema, audiovisual, multimedia) and up to one year after graduation.
Bourse dessinée 2026
Deadline for receipt of applications: April 2, 2026
The call for applications is open to students enrolled in 2025-2026 in a national school of architecture, from L2 to Master’s level.The aim of this grant, organized by the Cité de l’architecture in partnership with the ENSAÉCO network, is to support a personal research-creation process carried out exclusively through hand-drawing, seen as a critical, sensitive and exploratory tool, focusing on contemporary ecological issues.
Each year, a different theme is proposed. The four winners will produce their own sketchbook, each receiving a lump-sum grant of €4,000 gross, paid as royalties in return for the transfer of rights to the works produced as part of the project, under the conditions defined in the contract.
This year’s theme is “Inhabiting the living”: towards an architecture in dialogue with the animal and plant world.
ENSAPLV commits to equal opportunities in access to architectural studies
In partnership with the Fondation Culture & Diversité, the school is hosting its first “Equal opportunities at the school of architecture” course, from February 9 to 13.
Students taking part in this program benefit from courses, visits to cultural institutions, building sites and/or agencies, and meetings with teachers and professionals. Together, they produce an architectural project.
The aim is to inform them about architectural studies and career opportunities, and to prepare them for the Parcoursup and selection procedures for the Écoles nationales supérieures d’architecture (ENSA). Admitted students are then supported throughout their university studies.