The Place of Research is an ongoing event format that brings together members of the CCA Research Network, an entity representing alumni from our research programs, for site-specific gatherings that allow network members to share research in progress. The event highlights the ongoing concerns of the CCA Research Network, positions the network as a medium of exchange and support, and creates concrete encounters to bring together alumni around compelling and urgent research questions.

We convene the fourth of these gatherings at Galerie Avril in Paris to engage with the CCA Research Network’s 2025–2026 theme, how can we build relation?. This final gathering of the year will open a new format in the series, with the participation of a guest, here architect Meriem Chabani, opening and sharing their research practice at its points of intersection with how we build relation across colonial geographies. In addition to Chabani’s critical intervention, a select group of Paris-based participants from the CCA Research Network will bring insights from their own active research projects in order to contribute to the exchange.

The event is co-organized by CCA Research Network member and architectural historian Paul Bouet, curator Océane Ragoucy, and Rafico Ruiz.

This event is open to members of the CCA Research Network and the general public, though requires registration at studium@cca.qc.ca.

Algerian born, Paris based Meriem Chabani is the founding partner of NEW SOUTH, an award-winning architecture, urban planning and anthropology practice that puts the margin at the center. Her work on sacred spaces, memory, and belonging include the Muqarnas Pavilion in Saint-Etienne, the Globe Aroma refugee art center in Brussels, and the upcoming Mosque Zero in Paris. She has served as Aga Khan Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard GSD (2025), and currently teaches at Ecole Paris Malaquais (FR). In 2020 Meriem won the Europe 40 under 40 award. She was named one of the leading young female architects in France by AMC in 2023, and Le Monde in 2025.