Jordanian-Palestinian architect and designer Abeer Seikaly brings a powerful regional presence to the first-ever Qatar Pavilion – one that is both rooted in heritage and boldly future-facing. Known for her multidisciplinary practice that merges architecture, fine art and storytelling, Seikaly challenges conventional narratives with a design philosophy centring on continuity and indigenous wisdom. “Architecture is a living process – responsive, relational and rooted in care,” she reflects. “My motivation begins with a question: how can we offer dignity through the way we build?” Drawing from inherited Bedouin traditions such as tent making, weaving and dyeing, Seikaly views cultural crafts not as relics of the past, but foundational to her practice. For her, adaptation begins with observation, not imposition.
In collaboration with artisans and engineers, her work becomes a collective act – part ritual, part resistance. “Architecture begins with the people, learns from them and returns to them,” she says, reminding us that meaning endures through presence. In Venice, her work stands as a testament to that belief: poetic, practical and profoundly Arab.
Sumayya Vally Participating architect, the main exhibit at the Corderie
Sumayya Vally photographed by Nicolò De March
UAE-based South African architect Sumayya Vally unveils Ingesting Architectures, a deeply poetic and political meditation on “atmospheric violence” – the invisible forces that scar both land and body. Known for being the youngest architect to design the Serpentine Pavilion and founder of the award-winning architecture and research studio Counterspace, Vally’s work challenges convention and centres hybrid identities and contested geographies. Her film installation for this year’s biennale draws from Johannesburg’s mining belt and apartheid’s lingering breath. “I want to shape futures…
