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.

She often cites the city of Johannesburg as her biggest source of inspiration, and it is a recurring theme in her works [1] Sumayya grew up in the suburbs of Indian only township of Laudium and she attended a muslim school for her primary education.

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] 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.

[15] 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).

The varying textures, hues of pink and brown are drawn directly from the architecture of London and reference changes in quality of light[20] With this commission, Vally set out to create a representation of her ethos and practice by folding other voices into the pavilion.

[21] 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.

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.

[27] 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.