Re Renovate 2: From Heritage to Future Rethinking

Welcome to the second edition of Re Renovate

Architectural Conservation in a Time of Crisis
Venice – 13 & 14 November 2025

The times we live in are not gentle with the past. Earthquakes shake more than buildings. Bureaucracies bury more than paperwork. Entire cities seem to forget their own skin. Yet, from the crumbling cornices of industrial warehouses to the breathless silence of abandoned town halls, we ask: can architecture remember better than we do? And can it help us think differently about the future?

Re Renovate thinks it can. Or at least, it insists we try. Returning for its second edition this November in Venice, the symposium is a gathering not just of architects and policymakers, but of provocateurs, repairers, and unlicensed dreamers. Following its debut in Oulu, Finland, where it politely disrupted prevailing narratives, Re Renovate now docks in the fragile splendor of Venice, a city that knows something about drowning in history.

Not a Conference. A Complication.
This is not another polite academic affair. It is an international provocation, hosted at the historic Palazzo Badoer, Università Iuav di Venezia, and co-organised by Gamified Cohousing, Factum Foundation, Aaltosiilo, IUAV’s SSIBAP, and Architectural Democracy. The event dares to ask: what does it mean to renovate when renovation itself is broken?

With the backing of the Business Oulu, and others, the symposium will potentially help forge a Venice–Oulu Charter—a practical and philosophical document charting participatory renovation in the face of climate collapse, cultural fatigue, and the creeping financialisation of everything.

From Scaffolding to Substance
This is a gathering of minds and tools. Sessions will delve into seismic retrofitting in Nepal, community-led housing in Northern Finland, and the uneasy marriage of innovation and regulation. We will ask who renovation serves, and what happens when it serves no one. Or everyone.

It’s Not Just Talk

This hybrid event includes exhibitions, roundtables, walking arguments, and live-streamed provocations. A post-symposium podcast and publication will be produced by Architectural Democracy to ensure the sparks don’t die when the wine does.

Venue: Palazzo Badoer, Università Iuav di Venezia, Aula Tafuri
Audience: Architects, heretics, repairers, bureaucrats, researchers, romantics, policy tinkerers, and people who still believe buildings can teach
Social: @cohousing_gamified | @aaltosiilo | @factumfoundation | @iuav_venezia
#ReRenovate2025

Full program: https://gamifiedcohousing.com/re-renovate-2/