Counterspace

Counterspace An award-winning architecture and research practice led by it's Principal, Sumayya Vally.

In search of expression for hybrid identities and contested territories, our current projects are focused on expressions for African and Islamic hybrid identities - both rooted and diasporic.

✨ Notes on Finding Home — a text written by Sumayya Vally reflecting on the plurality of the idea of home which spans ac...
22/05/2026

✨ Notes on Finding Home — a text written by Sumayya Vally reflecting on the plurality of the idea of home which spans across her architectural, curatorial and artistic practices.

A sense of home, or what home means, is an enduring foundation of many of the projects that Counterspace has realised, or are in the process of realising. Vally's design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2021 (), her role as Resident Architect at Ibraaz (), her Artistic Direction at the inaugural Islamic Biennale 2023 () along with many more detailed above, place home at the heart of her architectural and curatorial frameworks.

➡️📖 Read more about how home is rooted in the work of Sumayya and Counterspace more broadly.

Notes on Finding Home is a text written for Bvlgari's () Icons Minaudière campaign in early 2026 ✨

💫 We are pleased to announce that our Principal Sumayya Vally () is an honouree in the AWITA (Association of Women in t...
05/05/2026

💫 We are pleased to announce that our Principal Sumayya Vally () is an honouree in the AWITA (Association of Women in the Arts) Honours Leaders in Culture 2026 — 25 women nominated by a global network of art leaders to be recognised at a ceremony at SMAC Venice.

Sumayya joins a list of international honourees selected by Nadia Samdani (), Kimberly Drew (), Melissa Gronlund (), Valeria Napoleone, Jessica Silverman (), Lang Xiao, Same Mdluli (), Camille Morineau (), & Sarah Harrelson (), in collaboration with the AWITA executive committee.

20/04/2026

Congratulations to all the awardees who received a medal in the Art Basel awards 2026, along with our Principal Sumayya Vally (). 🤍

We are profoundly grateful to Art Basel for acknowledging Sumayya and Counterspace's repertoire of works, the ethos of which build upon finding expression for African and Islamic conditions.

Thanks to & , and the jury: Hans Ulrich Obrist (), Adriano Pedrosa (), Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (), Elena Filipovic (), Franklin Sermans (), Jessica Morgan, Hoor Al Qasimi (), Philip Tinari () and Suhanya Raffel.

Thank you to the jury of Art Basel () for awarding Sumayya Vally () a medal in the category of Cross Disciplinary Creato...
18/04/2026

Thank you to the jury of Art Basel () for awarding Sumayya Vally () a medal in the category of Cross Disciplinary Creator in the Art Basel Awards 2026, recognising her work as a visionary shaping the future of art.

This medal represents a broader recognition of Sumayya as an architect, artistic director, curator and artist.

In her work, Sumayya thinks about institutional logics and systems. These intentions are present in projects such her role as Resident Architect at Ibraaz (), and as the youngest commissioned designer of the Serpentine Pavilion in 2020 (), in which the architectural thinking and the surrounding programme was driven by the concept of fragments of gathering spaces around London.

Sumayya also brought this cross-disciplinary approach to her role as Artistic Director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah in 2023 (), and as the selected designer of the Asiat-Darse bridge in Vilvoorde, Belgium, for which the legacy of local horticulturalist Paul Panda Farnana Belgium’s colonial past informed the design and pedagogy related to the work. ()

Also pictured above is her installation for Art Basel
Qatar, In the Assembly of Lovers, which was commissioned by Wael Shawky () and presented in Feb 2026 (). Other notable works include Sumayya's conceptualisation of the Pavilion and Performances at the Dhaka Art Summit in 2023 (), and the architectural design for the Tacapae Residency, Gabes. ()

We are profoundly grateful to Art Basel for acknowledging Sumayya and Counterspace's repertoire of works, the ethos of which build upon finding expression for African and Islamic conditions.

Thanks to & , and the jury: Hans Ulrich Obrist (), Adriano Pedrosa (), Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (), Elena Filipovic (), Franklin Sermans (), Jessica Morgan, Hoor Al Qasimi (), Philip Tinari () and Suhanya Raffel.

We are honoured that our Principal Sumayya Vally () is a medallist in the Art Basel Awards 2026 (), recognising her work...
17/04/2026

We are honoured that our Principal Sumayya Vally () is a medallist in the Art Basel Awards 2026 (), recognising her work as a visionary shaping the future of art. Sumayya is among an incredible selection of artists, curators and change makers who have been awarded this prestigious medal.

Being awarded this medal represents a broader recognition of the work of Sumayya as cross disciplinary; as an architect, artistic director, curator and artist. Her work and the work of Counterspace spans across a breadth of fields and projects, often evading categorisation as one form of practice.

Both woven into and emerging out of her architectural and curatorial practice, Sumayya thinks about institutional logics and systems. These intentions are present in projects such her role as Resident Architect at Ibraaz (), and as the youngest commissioned designer of the Serpentine Pavilion in 2020 (), in which the architectural thinking and the surrounding programme was driven by the concept of fragments of gathering spaces around London.

Sumayya also brought this cross-disciplinary approach to her role as Artistic Director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah in 2023 (), and as the selected designer of the Asiat-Darse bridge in Vilvoorde, Belgium, () for which the legacy of local horticulturalist Paul Panda Farnana Belgium’s colonial past informed the design and pedagogy related to the work.

We are profoundly grateful to Art Basel for acknowledging Sumayya as having already changed the conversation, and as a catalyst for future transformations as an architect, artistic director, curator and artist. Thanks to & 🤍

We are honoured that our Principal Sumayya Vally () is a medallist in the Art Basel Awards 2026 (), recognising her work...
17/04/2026

We are honoured that our Principal Sumayya Vally () is a medallist in the Art Basel Awards 2026 (), recognising her work as a visionary shaping the future of art.

Being awarded this medal represents a broader recognition of the work of Sumayya as cross disciplinary; as an architect, artistic director, curator and artist. Her work and the work of Counterspace spans across a breadth of fields and projects, often evading categorisation as one form of practice.

Both woven into and emerging out of her architectural and curatorial practice, Sumayya thinks about institutional logics and systems. These intentions are present in projects such her role as Resident Architect at Ibraaz (), and as the youngest commissioned designer of the Serpentine Pavilion () in 2020, in which the architectural thinking and the surrounding programme was driven by the concept of fragments of gathering spaces around London.

Sumayya also brought this cross-disciplinary approach to her role as Artistic Director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale () in Jeddah in 2023, and as the selected designer of the Asiat-Darse bridge in Vilvoorde, Belgium, for which the legacy of local horticulturalist Paul Panda Farnana Belgium’s colonial past informed the design and pedagogy related to the work. ()

We are profoundly grateful to Art Basel for acknowledging Sumayya as having already changed the conversation, and as a catalyst for future transformations as an architect, artistic director, curator and artist.

Ibraaz's () new London space has been conceptualised by Sumayya Vally () & Counterspace, reimagining how architecture ca...
08/04/2026

Ibraaz's () new London space has been conceptualised by Sumayya Vally () & Counterspace, reimagining how architecture can hold memory, ritual and community.

The Majlis space, inaugurated by Ibrahim Mahama's () Parliament of Ghosts, transformed the space into a site of reflection and remembrance through a vast installation constructed from reclaimed materials. The current exhibition, Hrair Sarkissian's () Stolen Past, invites the viewer to reflect and to mourn the objects looted from the Raqqa museum in Syria by the Islamic State.

Vally is conceptualising the space in dialogue with the works, communities and visitors who enter and gather here, drawing on typologies of gathering that have long-sustained communal life across Africa and the Arab world.

🔗 Read more on counterspace-studio.com & ibraaz.org

📷 Images by , .eigeland &

📹 Film by .xyz /

🔉"We were thinking about spaces where we don't come in to look at an exhibition, but that we come in to be with an exhib...
07/04/2026

🔉"We were thinking about spaces where we don't come in to look at an exhibition, but that we come in to be with an exhibition". — , Resident Architect at Ibraaz's () new London home.

Rather than a static building, the Ibraaz London space is envisioned as a gathering of gatherings — a living framework that evolves through the ways people inhabit it.

Our approach to the incremental design of Ibraaz will grow and adapt in response to its community, whether in the Maktaba (Bookshop), Oula (Café), Majlis (Gathering space), Minassa (Performance space), Musalla (Spiritual practice space) or Iqra (Library).

📸 Images included are by .eigeland .xyz

🔉 Sound taken from 'IBRAAZ — A BRAVE SPACE' by / .xyz

The Maktaba is operated by and curated by

🔗 Read more on counterspace-studio.com & ibraaz.org

Conceived as a living ground for encounter, rather than a fixed, static structure, In the Assembly of Lovers—by Sumayya ...
31/03/2026

Conceived as a living ground for encounter, rather than a fixed, static structure, In the Assembly of Lovers—by Sumayya Vally () / Counterspace for Art Basel Qatar ()—presents an architecture in flux: each day unfolding into a new configuration, hosting a different assembly, performance, or conversation.

Art Basel Qatar took place in Doha from 3—7 Feb 2026 and was curated by Wael Shawky (). With thanks to Vincenzo De Bellis ( #) & Sheikha AlMayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani ().

Read about In the Assembly of Lovers above, and visit our website via the link in bio for more 🔗

Art Basel Qatar's () inaugural edition, curated by Wael Shawky (), centred on the theme of 'Becoming' — a meditation on ...
28/03/2026

Art Basel Qatar's () inaugural edition, curated by Wael Shawky (), centred on the theme of 'Becoming' — a meditation on evolving and unfolding systems which shape and transform how we live and gather.

The research by Sumayya Vally () and Counterspace for In the Assembly of Lovers was shaped by the spatial logic of the majlis — one of the most notable archetictural forms in the Islamic world. In the Assembly of Lovers pays homage to the lost gathering spaces which have fallen victim to violence, political upheaval and conflict.

🔗 Read more about the research behind the installation on our website via the link in bio.

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