On the 3ed of November 2021 in the French Pavilion of the Dubai World Expo, Madeleine Houbart, Secretary General of AFEX (French Architects for Export), led the round table "The French approach to the sustainable and desirable city", through the testimonies of Afex members, proposing a debate on our common future. On this occasion, Jacob Celnikier (Celnikier & Grabli architects) and Philippe Stanfield Pinel (BOA Light Studio), designers of the French Pavilion (with Atelier Perez Prado), presented the French Pavilion project and discussed the challenges and constraints related to this unique, symbolic, ephemeral, reusable event, which is located in an extreme climate context. The presentation was followed by an introduction by Jacob Celnikier to the Sustainable and Desirable City Day, entitled "The city, what for?»