Syn Architects: The Um Slaim School—An Architecture of Connection

The National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, titled The Um Slaim School: An Architecture of Connection, presents the work of Syn Architects (Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi), curated by Beatrice Leanza with assistant curator Sara Almutlaq. The pavilion showcases the work of the Um Slaim Collective in documenting and researching local Najdi architecture in Riyadh. Taking this as a starting point to explore architecture as a medium of collective learning, it sets a stage for the emergence of new spatial practices that respond to contemporary social and environmental challenges.

Conceived as a living archive and communal gathering space, the pavilion presents material experiments, archival and contemporary photographs, models, films, and a sonic piece, drawing on the practice and research of Syn Architects, the Um Slaim Collective, and their collaborators. The Collective, operating out of the eponymous Riyadh district, is a vehicle for research and fieldwork on vernacular building methods and the evolution of Najdi architecture. Framing this investigative practice as a means for rethinking urban space, neighborhood communities, and material resources, The Um Slaim School is a framework for future pedagogical activities to be realized in Riyadh post-Biennale, establishing new connections between traditional building practices and urgent questions of today.

The project is constituted of three integral components: the exhibition presented inside the pavilion, a generative public program, titled BUILT/UNBUILT—Relational Pedagogies and Participatory Spatial Practice (or how to build collective spatial knowledge), evolving along the duration of the Biennale, and two publications. The first publication provides a spatial syntax that also guides the pavilion, and the second will serve as a proof of concept for future applications after the Biennale. The focus on collectivity and material expression is translated into the pavilion’s exhibition layout and design: along the central axis of the pavilion a long sculptural table—both an urban map and a gathering place—is sheltered in a “building within a building” made of scaffolding and layered textiles of embroidered maps and drawings interspersed with film, writing, and photography.

The exhibition integrates works by Syn Architects’ long-term collaborators, including three new commissions: Architectural Frequencies (2025), an immersive sound installation by Mohammed Alhamdan (7amdan), serves as the sonic underpinning of the exhibition, layering urban recordings of Riyadh, construction sounds and traditional building chants; Maha Malluh’s Tamwenat Addirah (2025) explores the local identity of the Um Slaim neighbourhood through collected market items; and photographer Laurian Ghinițoiu’s present tense (2023–25) documents neighborhoods of central Riyadh, including ritualized rhythms of daily life. Alongside these, photography by Mansour Alsofi documents modernist and postmodernist buildings in the city, and historical photographs and archival books trace the city’s urban and architectural evolution.

Running concurrently with the exhibition is the public program BUILT/UNBUILT—Relational Pedagogies and Participatory Spatial Practice (or how to build collective spatial knowledge). Curated by Beatrice Leanza and co-led by Maryam AlNoaimi, the program is an extension of the pavilion that aims to foster critical discourse and collaborative inquiry into the role of architecture in shaping education and socially engaged practices. It consists of a series of public events comprised of lectures, workshops, performances, screenings, readings, and walks.

The program’s public sessions are hosted at Palazzo Diedo—Berggruen Arts & Culture from June to November and are free to attend upon registration. Three thematic labs are developed in collaboration with Bricklab (Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz), Studio Ossidiana (Alessandra Covini, Giovanni Bellotti), and the Institute for Postnatural Studies (Gabriel Alonso, Yuri Tuma, Daniel H. Rey). These collaborators, alongside an international group of invited contributors, Syn Architects, and The Um Slaim School’s curatorial team, will accompany participants in sessions exploring public archives, material heritage, alternative education, and participatory spatial practice. The ideas and practical outcomes generated during the entirety of the program will be collated in a publication launched in the fall of 2025.

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