Building on the work of Riyadh-based architectural practice Syn Architects and their collaborative initiative the Um Slaim Collective, The Um Slaim School: An Architecture of Connection will offer an interpretive reflection about the contemporary urban environment of Saudi Arabia and situated spatial practice. 

Curated by Beatrice Leanza, assisted by Sara Almutlaq, the participation stages a living archive to launch The Um Slaim School. The project expounds upon the architectural heritage of Riyadh in relation to ecology, identity, and urban-making, advancing how local places of knowledge can address the urgencies of a rapidly evolving world—in Saudi Arabia, the Arab region, and beyond.

Established in 2021 by Syn Architects’ partners Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi, the Um Slaim Collective pursues methodological and discursive approaches to study the evolution of Najdi architecture in central Riyadh. Through an interdisciplinary rehabilitation of local architectural theories, creative practices, and environmental histories, the collective reframes dominant narratives of accelerated urban expansion within contemporary debates around sustainability and growth. Launched for the Biennale, The Um Slaim School will be an organic evolution of these agential and experimental efforts. To be established in Riyadh, the initiative pilots a generational shift that critically reads the built environment to nurture a new ecosystem for architectural education in Saudi Arabia, fostering transnational dialogue with generational experiences that are similarly engaging practice-led pedagogies and research-centred methodologies.

Throughout the Biennale, a generative program of laboratorial and public sessions led by curator Beatrice Leanza and supported by Maryam AlNoaimi will contribute to and enhance spatial and urban thinking in the region while opening up transnational collaboration to inform the future school.

Taking Riyadh as a case study, the exhibition will feature archival and contemporary imagery, objects, models, writings, and films, inviting audiences to explore, interpret, and question the architectural narratives that shape the everyday. Oral, visual, and experimental documentation will explore the layered stories and relationships embedded in the fabric of the city to become a living archive: both a presentation of ideas, research methods, and architectural propositions, and a congregational space for the program to unfold.

Further information at saudipavilion.org