Curated by Beatrice Leanza and co-led by Maryam AlNoaimi

During the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia offered a public program entitled BUILT/UNBUILT. The public program ran from June to November between Palazzo Diedo and the Pavilion and was conceived as a layered, participatory experience. Through curated public and laboratorial sessions, developed in collaboration with the labs leads, the two locations were activated as spaces of ongoing research, inquiry and knowledge production. These sessions take on various formats of encounter and articulation, forming a working dynamic that rethinks spatial and urban thinking in the region while opening up transnational collaboration to inform the future school.

Three laboratories were developed in collaboration with the Institute for Postnatural Studies (Gabriel Alonso, Yuri Tuma, Daniel H. Rey), Studio Ossidiana (Alessandra Covini, Giovanni Bellotti), and Bricklab (Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz). Each lab provided a distinct lens through which to reimagine what a “school” can be and what it has the potential to become.

A key component of the laboratories was the participation of 10 Saudi students, who were distributed across the three themes and engaged in a reciprocal model of mentorship with the lab leads. This approach fostered active exchange, collective inquiry, and shared authorship.

Building on these explorations, the program positioned architectural learning as a situated and collaborative practice, one that values integrated and relational modes of knowledge and seeks to cultivate a new ecosystem for architectural education.

Thematic Strands

Archiving Otherwise – Cocreating Public Archives and Collective Knowledge / June 27–29

Material Ecologies – Material Heritage and Rituals of Mitigation, Repair, and Reuse / September 27–29

Pedagogies of Proximity and Relation – Prototyping Alternative Education / October 10–12

Building Participatory Infrastructures – Hyperlocal Practices and Connective Organization / November 22–23

For information on the program check https://saudipavilion.org/built-unbuilt/  and @saudipavilion on Instagram.