In a fragile yet ceaselessly transforming context such as that of Lebanon, architecture emerges as an indispensable instrument for confronting the manifold challenges of post-conflict reconstruction. The Fondazione Architetti di Reggio Emilia, within the framework of the international activities of the RIGENERA Festival “Plan B” – supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture, Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity – in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut and the Arab Center for Architecture, is convening a public talk designed to invite scholars, practitioners, and institutions to reflect upon how contemporary architectural practices might be interwoven with the needs of local communities and with the safeguarding and enhancement of memory and urban identities.
Lebanon, a crossroads of cultures and custodian of an extraordinary architectural heritage, today represents a privileged laboratory in which reconstruction – understood in its urban, cultural, and social dimensions – converges with the impetus towards development, configuring itself as a locus of “Plan Bs”, of rebirth, but equally of authentic regeneration.
The talk will also provide the occasion to present the Rigenera Prize 2025 and its laureates. The Prize seeks to recognise works that interpret architecture as a vehicle of civic, environmental, and social transformation. The objective is not the celebration of the architect as an individual icon, but rather the amplification of those projects that tangibly enhance places and improve the quality of people’s lives, regenerating spaces, landscapes, and communities.
To regenerate means to hold past and future together, to weave memory with innovation, to bind space to relationships; it means transcending the notion of architecture as a mere “object” and recognising it instead as a process, a service, and an opportunity for change.
The winning and shortlisted projects of the Rigenera Prize 2025, selected by a jury of experts following a public call addressed to Italian architects, have been distinguished for their capacity to combine architectural quality, sustainability, and social impact: they do not merely conserve, but rather restore the future.