Counterspace

Counterspace is a Johannesburg practice founded and led by Sumayya Vally, working to articulate hybrid identities through an African and Islamic lens, both indigenous and diasporic. Vally’s methodology is forensic: oral histories, sound, ritual and everyday overlooked elements become the raw material for research and for built or exhibited work.

The studio’s projects, exhibitions and installations include the Islamic Arts Biennale, which Vally artistically directed in 2023, and the Dhaka Art Summit Pavilion in Bangladesh. Counterspace designed the 2020 Serpentine Pavilion, an honour that brought the practice international attention, and has been named among Domus’s best architecture firms. Teaching and research run alongside the practice.