The Um Slaim School: an ar­chi­tec­ture of con­nec­tion at the Saudi Pa­vi­lion

The Um Slaim School grows out of Syn Architects and the Um Slaim Collective, launched to investigate the shifting conditions of Najdi architecture in central Riyadh. The pavilion activates an investigative process to collectively prototype an alternative pedagogical initiative to be established in Riyadh after the Biennale. Its aim is to foster new pathways for architecture education in Saudi Arabia while connecting with transnational dialogue on practice-led pedagogies and research-centred methodologies, nurturing situated knowledge that can speak to global issues intertwined with ecology, identity and urban making. 

The project asks how architecture can rewire relations among natural, social and technological systems that work with nature and support co-creation and codependence. Over the months of the Biennale, a durational public program of talks and workshops invites practitioners, studios, academics and students to test shared vocabularies and methods and to contextualise them across places and practices, foregrounding a participatory approach. 

A prospective set of spatial terms guides and narrates the exhibition and serves as the building blocks of a spatial syntax that can evolve through the collaborative shaping of the School, expanding from the situated condition of Riyadh and the wider region into contemporary architectural thinking and making. 

Publishing is part of this pedagogy. A first volume titled The Um Slaim School: An Architecture of Connection has been announced by Mousse Publishing, and a second book is planned to gather outcomes from the Biennale program as a proof of concept for the School.

Discover the dossier about Biennale 2025 on Espazium Youtube Channel

More information about the Pavilion at this link.