What exists is a vital resource. It is living material that goes beyond the visible and resonates with memories, traces, and abandoned uses, offering endless potential for reinvention.

In a world that hungers for sustainable solutions, working with what already exists is a necessity: reinterpreting the already-there helps reduce ecological impact while breathing new life into forgotten resources. It is a springboard for imagining exceptional architecture —generous and bold buildings that break the mold.

During White Week 2025, an intensive time of discussion and debate at the École d’Architecture de Versailles curated by adjunct faculty Antoine Santiard (h2o architectes) and Marcos G. Rojo (AUS studio), architects and thinkers representing a variety of approaches were asked to share their vision of the existing. This book brings together six texts written by participant architects and six others that have inspired them. All reinterrogate that which exists, the better to imagine the future.