Connections as Method: Relational Pedagogies and Participatory Spatial Practice
Overview
(Coming Soon)
Second official catalogue of the National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at Venice Biennale Architettura 2025.
With vital insights into situated spatial practices across the Arab Gulf and its adjacencies, Connections as Method: Relational Pedagogies and Participatory Spatial Practice is informed by research, approaches, and perspectives from more than sixty international contributors. The volume draws on the first year of The Um Slaim School—a pioneering initiative that emerges from the work of Riyadh-based Syn Architects and their collaborators, as convened by Beatrice Leanza and Maryam AlNoaimi for the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Biennale Architettura 2025.
Featuring architects, artists, educators, urbanists, and writers, these interactions pilot methodologies of knowledge exchange to establish south-south networks of coproduction across disciplinary boundaries. Tracing transnational alliances, case studies, and thematics from the school's first year, subjects of inquiry challenge established architectural canons, centering alternative spatial histories and material practices to address urgent ecological and social concerns.
Through conversations, visual and theoretical essays, fieldwork, and tooling curricula, the volume rethinks architectural education as an integrated set of forms and modes of knowledge, nurturing processes of experimentation and research toward social debate, public imagining, and civic enlightenment.
This volume is a complement to The Um Slaim School: An Architecture of Connection, the inaugural publication documenting Syn Architects’ foundational research and proposing a localized spatial discourse relevant to Saudi Arabia and the broader region.
Designer: Bytwo
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انطلاقاً من رؤى جوهرية حول الممارسات المكانية في الخليج العربي ومحيطه، يقدم كتاب "مناهج في الوصل: التعليم والمشاركة في الممارسات المكانية" حصيلة غنية تستند إلى أبحاث ومقاربات ورؤى قدمها أكثر من ستين مساهماً دولياً. يستند هذا العمل إلى التجربة الأولى لـ"مدرسة أم سليم: نحو مفهوم معماري مترابط"؛ المبادرة الرائدة التي أطلقها مكتب سين معماريون في الرياض بالتعاون مع شركائهم، تحت إشراف بياتريس ليانزا ومريم النعيمي، لصالح الجناح الوطني السعودي في بينالي العمارة 2025
يضمّ الكتاب معماريين وفنانين ومعلمين ومخططين حضريين وكتّاباً، ليقدّم من خلالهم أساليب مبتكرة لتبادل المعرفة وبناء شبكات تعاون جنوب-جنوب تتجاوز حدود التخصصات. وعبر تتبّع التحالفات العابرة للحدود، والدراسات التطبيقية، والموضوعات التي عالجتها المدرسة في عامها الأول، يواجه المجلد القوالب التقليدية للمعرفة المعمارية، مسلطاً الضوء على تواريخ مكانية بديلة وممارسات مادية جديدة تستجيب للتحديات البيئية والاجتماعية الملحّة
من خلال الحوارات والمقالات النظرية والبصرية والعمل الميداني وتطوير المناهج، يعيد الكتاب صياغة مفهوم التعليم المعماري بوصفه منظومة متكاملة من أنماط المعرفة وأساليبها. وهو يشجع على التجريب والبحث باعتبارهما أدوات لإثراء النقاش المجتمعي وصياغة التصورات العامة وتعزيز الوعي المدني
ويأتي هذا المجلد مكمّلاً لكتاب "مدرسة أم سليم: نحو مفهوم معماري مترابط"، الإصدار الأول الذي وثّق الأبحاث التأسيسية لمكتب سين معماريون، واقترح خطاباً معمارياًُ محلياًُ يرتبط بالسعودية والمنطقة الأوسع
About the Authors
Syn Architects (Sara Alissa & Nojoud Alsudairi)
Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi cofounded Syn Architects in 2018, an interdisciplinary Riyadh-based practice with a focus on ecologically sensitive architectural design projects. In 2021, they launched the Um Slaim Collective, a critical investigation of the changing condition of vernacular Najdi architecture in central Riyadh. They are also the cofounders of SaudiArchitecture.org, an independent organization that aims to research and archive modernist and postmodernist buildings in Saudi Arabia. Architects and artists, they are graduates of the Situated Practice program at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Their notable projects include When the Earth Began to Look at Itself (2024) Desert X AlUla, Anywhere Can Be a Place of Worship (2023) at the Islamic Arts Biennale, and the restoration and extension of Shamalat Cultural Center, Riyadh (2023).
Beatrice Leanza
Beatrice Leanza is a curator, museum director, and critic. After seventeen years shaping the Chinese creative scene, leading Beijing Design Week, and cofounding The Global School, China’s first independent design institute, she directed maat (Lisbon) and mudac (Lausanne). Her book The New Design Museum (Park Books, 2025) explores how contemporary institutions address 21st century challenges.
Mariam Al Noami
Mariam Al Noami is an artist and urban designer whose work explores the intersections between people and their environment, often grounded in research and community engagement. She holds a Master’s degree in Urban Design from the University of Colorado (2017). Her work has been exhibited in numerous regional and international art venues, including Sharjah Biennial 16 (UAE); Hayy Jameel (Saudi Arabia); NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery (UAE); Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition; Al Riwaq Art Space (Bahrain); Saatchi Gallery (UK); and in 2019, her work was featured in the exhibition “Waiting” held in parallel with the Venice Biennale in Italy.
Technical Details
- Publication Date:
- Monday, November 10, 2025
- Language:
- English & Arabic
- Format:
- Softcover
- Dimensions:
- 14.5 x 21.5
- Weight:
- 1 kg
- ISBN:
- 978-614-8065-02-6
- Number of Pages:
- 561
- Publisher:
- Kaph Books