A journal for urban debate

A conversation between Michaël Bianchi and Pierre Chabard.

jeudi 15 octobre 2026
à 13:00
lieu : à la bibliothèque

This discussion will focus on the Liège-based journal Dérivations, an annual publication dedicated to urban debate and published in Liège by the urbAgora association since 2015. Particular attention will be paid to the eleventh and latest issue, devoted to ‘The City Under Extraction’, but the speakers will also discuss, more generally, the trajectory and editorial stance of this annual journal, which has been published regularly since September 2015. What role can a journal play in the political sphere? To what extent can the critical debate it fosters act as a catalyst for the transformation of a city or a region? What concrete forms of action does the involvement of architects in such publishing ventures entail? These will be the main questions driving the discussions.

Michaël Bianchi holds a PhD in architecture and is a member of the Research Unit of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Liège (URA). He is also a research officer at urbAgora, a Liège-based association dedicated to urban debate, public education on urban issues, and the development of projects and counter-proposals with a social and ecological focus. Finally, he is editor-in-chief of the journal Dérivations.

Pierre Chabard is an architect by training, holds a PhD in history and is an architectural critic. A senior lecturer at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-La-Villette, he is a member of the AHTTEP research team. A contributor to several art and architecture journals, he was a member of the editorial board of the journal Le Visiteur (2001–2003), before co-founding Criticat, which he co-edited between 2007 and 2018. The author of monographic essays on architects and several books, he has been director of Éditions de la Villette since 2019.