Sumayya Vally

Professor Sumayya Vally (born 1990) is a Muslim South African architect, and the founder and principal of the architecture and research firm, Counterspace.[1] It is based between Johannesburg, South Africa, and London, United Kingdom.[2]

Early life and education

Sumayya Vally was born in February 1990 in Pretoria, South Africa, in the township of Laudium. She often cites the city of Johannesburg as her biggest source of inspiration, and it is a recurring theme in her works [1]

Vally completed her undergraduate studies in Architecture at the University of Pretoria, and went on to complete her master's degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2014.

Career

In 2014, Sumayya Vally was admitted to the position of assistant curator and film producer for the South African Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia.[3] Between 2015 and 2020, she led the University of Johannesburg's Unit 12, An African Almanac, at the Graduate School of Architecture.[3] The unit was founded by Professor Lesley Lokko, with the intent to create a curriculum for the African continent.[4]

Alongside her teaching career, Sumayya Vally co-founded the experimental architecture and research firm, Counterspace in 2015.[3]

In 2020, the firm was appointed to design the 20th Serpentine Pavilion, making Sumayya the youngest architect to be commissioned for this acclaimed annual temporary structure.[5] Her conception of the Serpentine Pavilion, erected in 2021, is a response to the historical erasure and scarcity of informal community spaces across the city of London, and pays homage to existing and erased places that have held communities over time and continue to do so.[6][7][8]

Vally was included in the Time 100 Next list in 2021, which highlights 100 emerging leaders who are shaping the future.[9] She was the only architect to make the list that year.[10][11]

She was Pelli Distinguished Visiting professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a lecture series that brings internationally recognized architects together to serve as visiting lecturers each semester[12]

In 2023, Vally artistically directed and co-curated the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.[13] The event brings together many contemporary artists from across the world alongside rare artefacts, drawn together through the themes of Qiblah (direction) and Hijra (migration).[14] That same year, she was appointed Honorary Professor of Practice at University College London’s The Bartlett School of Architecture.[15] During her tenure, she will make her contribution to the Professional Practice Stream across The Bartlett School of Architecture and its Architecture MSci programme.[15]

Selected works
Sumayya Vally's 2021 Serpentine Pavilion

Serpentine Pavilion

In 2021, Sumayya Vally designed the 20th Serpentine Pavilion, making her the youngest architect to do so in the commission's history.[16] The forms in the Pavilion are a result of abstracting, superimposing and splicing elements from architectures that vary in scales of intimacy, translating the shapes of London into the Pavilion structure in Kensington Gardens. Where these forms meet, they create a new place for gathering in the Pavilion[17]

The Pavilion is built of reclaimed steel, cork and timber covered with micro-cement. The varying textures, hues of pink and brown are drawn directly from the architecture of London and reference changes in quality of light[18]

With this commission, Vally set out to create a representation of her ethos and practice by folding other voices into the pavilion.[19] The Pavilion’s design is based on past and present places of meeting, organising and belonging across several London neighbourhoods significant to diasporic and cross-cultural communities, including Brixton, Hoxton, Tower Hamlets, Edgware Road, Barking and Dagenham and Peckham, among others. Responding to the historical erasure and scarcity of informal community spaces across the city, the Pavilion references and pays homage to existing and erased places that have held communities over time and continue to do so today. Among them are: some of the first mosques built in the city, such as Fazl Mosque and East London Mosque, cooperative bookshops including Centerprise, Hackney; entertainment and cultural sites including The Four Aces Club on Dalston Lane, The Mangrove restaurant and the Notting Hill Carnival.[20]

Fragments of the Pavilion

These places of gathering that inspired the design of the pavilion, were in turn incorporated by housing a fragment of the Serpentine Pavilion, taking the structure back out into the city. For the first time in the history of the Serpentine Pavilion commission, four fragments were placed in partner organisations. They are located in New Beacon Books in Finsbury Park, one of the first Black publishers and booksellers in the UK; a multi-purpose venue and community hub The Tabernacle in Notting Hill; arts centre the Albany in Deptford, and the new Becontree Forever Arts and Culture Hub at Valence Library in Barking and Dagenham, which was established to commemorate the centenary of the UK’s largest council housing estate.

The Fragments support the everyday operations of these organisations while enabling and honouring gatherings of local communities that they have supported for years. A gesture of decentralising architecture to include a multitude of voices, the Fragments extend out into the city the principles on which the Pavilion was designed.[21]

Support Structures for Support Structures

An off-shoot of the 2021 Serpentine Pavilion, Support Structures for Support Structures is a fellowship programme initiated by the Serpentine in collaboration with Sumayya Vally and Serpentine’s Civic Projects programme.[22] It was established to support artists working at the intersection of art, spatial politics and community practice.

Islamic Arts Biennale

Vally artistically directed the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia which ran from January through May 2023.[23] It was significant in that it put forth a new definition of Islamic art, representing a historic moment for the canon of Islamic art. In her role as Artistic Director, Vally was responsible for the development of the biennale's theme, concept, narrative, atmosphere, experience and theme identity, curation of contemporary commissions, and the direction and narrative of the spaces.[24]

The biennale re-imagined Jeddah's Western Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz Airport, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. It presented more than forty contemporary works and over fifteen never-before-exhibited works, in addition to 280 artefacts, delivered by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation through a unique multi-sensorial experience.[25]

In an interview with Arch Daily, Vally said of the Islamic Arts Biennale: "Since my practice is so centered and focused on finding design and aesthetic form and artistic expression for our identities, I really believe that it was very important to undertake a project like this, to claim, reclaim, configure, and reconfigure what this title is for the present and the future. I see it as a decolonial project, and I was really excited to be able to define it from these perspectives and voices.[26]"

Awards and honours

2023
  • Honorary Fellow, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada[27]
  • Royal Academy Architecture Awards, Juror [28]
  • OBEL Awards, Juror [29]
  • Lexus Design Award, Mentor [30]

2022
  • World Economic Forum, Young Global Leader [31]
  • Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture, Shortlist [32]
  • The World Around: Young Climate Prize, Design Champion [33]
  • Galerie’s 2022 Creative Minds [34]
  • African Futures Institute: Academic Advisor [35]
  • Dezeen’s Fifty Architects and Designers You Need to Know [36]

2021
  • Graham Foundation Recipient [37]
  • Rowan Moore’s Best Architecture of 2021 (Serpentine Pavilion) [38]
  • Best architecture of the year, selected by Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian (Serpentine Pavilion) [39]
  • TIME100 Next [9]
  • artnet 25 Inspiring Women in the Art World [40]
  • The Talks Emerging Masters [41]
  • SOM Foundation Jury Member, European Research Prize [42]
  • Dezeen Awards Jury Member [43]

2020
  • Domus Best Architecture Firms [44]
  • Architecture for a New Generation: Changemakers Manifestos, Design Museum [45]
  • Serpentine Pavilion [6]

References
  1. "Portfolio: Sumayya Vally, Counterspace". March 8, 2022.
  2. "New Forms of Articulation: Sumayya Vally in conversation with Esther Choi". Deem.
  3. "Sumayya Vally - Unit Leader". UNIT 12.
  4. "Unit system sparks post-graduate interest in architecture". www.news.uct.ac.za.
  5. "The 20th Serpentine Pavilion Designed by Counterspace, to Open on June 11th 2021". ArchDaily. 2021-06-09. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  6. "Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Sumayya Vally, Counterspace". Serpentine Galleries.
  7. Rea, Naomi (December 1, 2020). "'I Want to Build Differently': Meet Sumayya Vally, the Youngest Architect Ever to Win the Prestigious Serpentine Pavilion Commission". Artnet News.
  8. "Support Structures for Support Structures". Serpentine Galleries.
  9. "2021 TIME100 Next: Sumayya Vally". Time. February 17, 2021.
  10. Ravenscroft, Tom (February 19, 2021). "Sumayya Vally named one of Time magazine's 100 leaders of the future". Dezeen.
  11. "New Class". The Forum of Young Global Leaders.
  12. "César Pelli Distinguished Lecture Series". School of Architecture.
  13. "biennale |".
  14. Bustani, Hareth Al (January 23, 2023). "Islamic Arts Biennale opens, exploring the magnetism of faith at the gateway to Makkah". The National.
  15. "Sumayya Vally Appointed Honorary Professor of Practice at The Bartlett School of Architecture". The Bartlett School of Architecture. February 3, 2023.
  16. Rea, Naomi (2020-12-01). "'I Want to Build Differently': Meet Sumayya Vally, the Youngest Architect Ever to Win the Prestigious Serpentine Pavilion Commission". Artnet News. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  17. "Serpentine Pavilion 2021". Serpentine Pavilion 2021. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  18. "Serpentine Pavilion 2021". Serpentine Pavilion 2021. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  19. Photography, Ellie Stathaki last updated Contributions from Mikhael Subotzky- (2021-04-16). "Counterspace's Sumayya Vally on her Serpentine Pavilion". wallpaper.com. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  20. "Serpentine Pavilion 2021". Serpentine Pavilion 2021. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  21. "Serpentine Pavilion 2021". Serpentine Pavilion 2021. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  22. "Support Structures for Support Structures". Serpentine Galleries. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  23. "Islamic Arts Biennale". Diriyah Biennale Foundation. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  24. "'Islamic Arts Biennale is a platform to express our identities' says Artistic Director Sumayya Vally". World Architecture Community. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  25. "Serpentine Pavilion 2021". Serpentine Pavilion 2021. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  26. "Sumayya Vally on the First Islamic Arts Biennale: "Claim, Reclaim, Configure, and Reconfigure"". ArchDaily. 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  27. Canada, Royal Architectural Institute of (2023-03-22). "RAIC Welcomes four new Honorary Fellows". Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  28. "RA Architecture Awards | Royal Academy of Arts". www.royalacademy.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  29. "Jury – OBEL AWARD". Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  30. "Lexus Design Award 2023 Judges and Mentors | Lexus Europe". www.lexus.eu. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  31. "New Class". The Forum of Young Global Leaders. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  32. Williams, Fran (2022-02-24). "MJ Long Prize and Moira Gemmill Prize 2022 shortlists revealed". The Architects’ Journal. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  33. "The World Around Young Climate Prize: Open Call for Applications". ArchDaily. 2022-09-02. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  34. "Discover Galerie's 2022 Creative Minds". Galerie. 2022-03-18. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  35. "AFI | Board of Academic Advisors". African Futures Institute. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  36. "Fifty architects and designers you need to know on Earth Day". Dezeen. 2022-04-22. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  37. "Graham Foundation Announces Names of 2021 Individual Grant Recipients". ArchDaily. 2021-05-28. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  38. Moore, Rowan (2021-12-24). "Rowan Moore's best architecture of 2021". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  39. Searle, Adrian; Jones, Jonathan; Wainwright, Oliver (2021-12-20). "The best art and architecture of 2021 – the year the galleries reopened". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  40. Artnet News (2020-11-24). "Here Are 25 Inspiring Women in the Art World Who Overcame Obstacles to Accomplish Incredible Things in This Surreal Year". Artnet News. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  41. "Emerging Masters". The Talks. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  42. "SOM Foundation Announces Jury for the 2021 European Research Prize". SOM Foundation. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  43. "Judges | Dezeen Awards 2021". Dezeen. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  44. "Best Architecture Firms 2020". www.domusweb.it. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  45. Q42, Fabrique &. "Manifestos - Architecture for a New Generation". Design Museum. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
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