UK-Kenya architectural practitioners selected to represent the UK at La Biennale di Venezia 2025

British Council announces team for British Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia

NAIROBI, KENYA, April 16, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Team of architectural practitioners selected to represent the UK at the Biennale Architettura 2025.

• Owen Hopkins, Director of the Farrell Centre at Newcastle University
• Dr Kathryn Yusoff, Professor of Inhuman Geography at Queen Mary University
• Kabage Karanja, Co-founder & Director of Cave_bureau based in Nairobi, Kenya
• Stella Mutegi, Co-founder & Director of Cave_bureau based in Nairobi, Kenya

A panel of architects, educators and cultural professionals from across the UK and Kenya, chaired by the British Council’s Sevra Davis, selected the winning team from a shortlist of four proposals. The exhibition will explore architectures of repair, restitution, and renewal.

The exhibition will include a range of sensory-based physical and digital installations, transforming the 2025 British Pavilion into a site of reinvention and reimagining for architecture and for the earth.

The British Council has been commissioning the British Pavilion in Venice since 1937, showcasing the best of the UK's artists, architects, designers and curators. These exhibitions, and the Venice Fellowships initiative introduced in 2016, help make the British Pavilion a platform for discussion about contemporary art and architecture.

Sevra Davis, Director of Architecture Design Fashion, British Council said:

“The British Council is delighted to announce the appointed UK-Kenya team to develop and deliver the British Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2025. As part of the upcoming 2025 UK-Kenya Season of Culture, this appointment marks the first time that the British Council uses our platform as a cultural relations organisation to celebrate international connection and collaboration through the British Pavilion in Venice. I look forward to working with the appointed team to develop and deliver an exhibition that speaks not only of an ‘architecture of repair’ but also celebrates cross-cultural knowledge creation. The exhibition will acknowledge the past while presenting an exciting vision for a more equitable future. I would like to thank all the teams that submitted proposals for the 2025 exhibition for the time and energy that went into the applications.”

The appointed curatorial team said:

“We are honoured to have been selected to curate the British Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2025. Our UK and Kenya combined team intersects multiple disciplines and geographies, with a critical perspective on how to use this unique platform. The exhibition will map architectures from across the world defined by an embedded relationship to the ground, which are resilient in the face of climate breakdown, social, economic and political upheaval; and that offer refuge and empowerment for the most climate exposed communities. To frame this, we intend to conceptually reinscribe the British Pavilion by turning it inside out and unearth what these acts of repair might look like when framing a planetary vernacular."

Tom Porter, Country Director Kenya, British Council said:

“This landmark collaboration at the Venice Architecture Biennale presents a timely opportunity to celebrate creative collaboration between the UK and Kenya on a global stage. The programme will be a highlight of our UK Kenya Season 2025. The team’s ambition to explore repair, restitution, and renewal will inspire important conversations and bring nuanced perspectives to architecture's impact on people and our planet.”

The advisory panel of leading architecture professionals changes for every edition of the Architecture Biennale. The panel selecting for 2025 consists of:

- Sevra Davis (Chair), Commissioner of the British Pavilion; Director of Architecture Design and Fashion at the British Council
- Grace Choi, Director, Grace Choi Architecture
- Tom Dyckhoff, Architecture critic, historian, broadcaster and judge on Channel 4’s ‘Handmade: Britain's Best Woodworker’
- Professor Aseem Inam, Professor and Chair in Urban Design, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University
- Joy Mboya, Cultural Activist and Founding Executive Director of the GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
- Professor Washington Ochieng, Professor at Imperial College and Trustee of the Science Museum
- Muyiwa Oki, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
- Dr Huda Tayob, Lecturer in Architectural Studies at Manchester School of Architecture
- Tamsie Thomson, CEO, The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS)

Read more here: https://venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org/british-pavilion-2025

Janet Ndugire
British Council
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