VENICE: “The embroidery that you see is what remains of the vernacular fabric in central Riyadh,” says Sara Alissa, one half of Syn Architects, a small, research-focused practice founded by Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi in 2019. “What’s interesting is, when people enter and they understand what is embroidered, they are either taken aback by how much remains, or how little.” 

Alissa is sitting on a long sculptural table occupying the central axis of the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia. It’s the second day of previews at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and all eyes are on “The Um Slaim School: An Architecture of Connection.” Running until Nov. 23 and commissioned by the Ministry of Culture’s Architecture and Design Commission, the exhibition is a moment of truth for Alissa and Alsudairi, who have dedicated their careers to ecologically sensitive architectural design. 

Conceived as a living archive and a hub for communal gathering, the pavilion showcases the work of the Um Slaim Collective — a research, exhibition, and workshop space founded by Syn Architects in 2021. Dedicated to studying the displacement of Najdi architecture in central Riyadh, the collective — or lab — is a physical manifestation of the practice’s research, drawing on local architectural theories, creative practices, and environmental histories to examine the impact of rapid urban expansion on central Riyadh. It is, says Alsudairi, who could not make it to Venice, a grassroots attempt to collect history, data, and research in order to rethink both urban spaces and neighborhood communities.  

In essence, the pavilion is an evolution of the duo’s work and acts as a launchpad for The Um Slaim School — a propositional pedagogical platform that builds on the work of both Syn Architects and the Um Slaim Collective. As such, it is a re-evaluation of the role of architects within a city like Riyadh and introduces a new model for architectural education in Saudi Arabia, one that merges historical insight with contemporary practice to create shared spaces for learning, making, and cultural exchange. 

“It’s a more refined lab than we have in Riyadh,” says Alissa of the pavilion, which has been curated by Beatrice Leanza with assistance from the Saudi interdisciplinary artist and curator Sara Almutlaq. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we wanted to put forth something in Venice that we could benefit from after and not something that gets discarded right after the exhibition closes. We also wanted to create an experience and a feeling that people can leave with.”  

Alissa is sitting in a ‘building within a building.’ Located in the Arsenale — one of the biennale’s two main venues — the pavilion’s exhibition features four rows of scaffolding wrapped in layered textiles. These textiles, embroidered with maps featuring the nine districts of central Riyadh and various drawings, are interspersed with film, writing, and photography, all of which explore the stories and relationships woven into the architectural fabric of Riyadh. The exhibition includes an immersive sound installation created by Mohammed Alhamdan, which layers urban recordings of Riyadh, the city’s construction, and traditional builders’ chants.  

Alhamdan’s installation is one of three new commissions integrated into the exhibition. Set into one of the scaffolding walls is Saudi artist Maha Malluh’s “Tamwenat Addirah,” which explores the identity of the Um Slaim neighborhood through collected market items. Elsewhere, the photography of Laurian Ghinițoiu documents the ritualized rhythms of daily life. Alongside these, the photography of Mansour Alsofi captures modernist and postmodernist buildings in the city, while historical photographs and archival books chart its urban and architectural development. All of the artists and photographers have previously collaborated with Syn Architects.  

Ephemeral in nature, the space highlights some of the projects and interventions carried out by Syn Architects over the past five years, including the Shamalat Cultural Centre, an old mud building on the edge of Diriyah, which was converted into a cultural hub by Malluh and renovated by the architects in 2022. For their reimagining of the traditional mud house through restoration and addition, Alissa and Alsudairi were recently awarded the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. 

“When Nojoud and I started our practice, we felt a responsibility,” says Alissa. “We’re young Saudi architects working in the city and we wanted to create, or help create, this contemporary architectural language within the country. We felt the need to really explore our historical built fabric, but also the values embedded within it. We are advocating for restoration in a physical sense, but also in an intangible sense, where we restore the successful values associated with Najdi architecture.” 

The duo’s work inhabits the metaphorical space between the building and the scaffold, says Alsudairi, and seeks to challenge both neglect and over-romanticization — reviving vernacular structures not as relics or ruins, but as functional, living elements within the urban fabric. It also examines the ways in which cultural preservation and contemporary design can coexist. In doing so, their goal is to restore knowledge, to preserve, and ultimately to share what they have learned.  

“We didn’t want to depart from the core work we’ve been doing with the Um Slaim Collective, so we chose to build on that,” explains Alsudairi. “We saw it as a valuable opportunity to expand the collective’s knowledge-sharing focus and move toward something more permanent. Right now, the school is a propositional project, but imagine the value of creating a school that is truly site-specific, in the sense that it doesn’t import knowledge, but grows from its own context.” 

It has been an overwhelming few months for the young studio, which has been catapulted into the spotlight since the announcement of the Saudi pavilion in early February.   

“Before we came to Venice, I was telling my daughter I’d be away for the biennale,” says Alissa. “She’s seven, she’s aware, and she kind of understands what we’re doing. And she was saying, ‘Oh, I hope you win in Venice.’ I’m like, ‘It’s not about winning.’ And then she sends me a message, saying, ‘I don’t care if you win. I’m just happy that you’re doing what you’re doing.’ It was so sweet.  

“Sometimes we feel very overwhelmed and unsure if we even want to continue because of how difficult things are. But then we have these moments — whether from our children, from people around us, or from each other. I think it’s something we rarely say out loud, but having a partner to go through it all with is really key.” 

Running alongside the exhibition is a complementary program of laboratorial and public sessions led by Leanza and supported by the Bahraini architect, researcher, and photographer Maryam AlNoaimi. It includes lectures, workshops, performances, screenings, readings, and walks that seek to foster dialogue on how architecture influences education and community-based practice. 

“I would be lying if I said we have an exact plan of where we’re going, because we didn’t have this in our plan,” says Alissa. “We definitely had an aspiration to do the Biennale, but never for this kind of duration. As long as we keep learning along the way, I think the objective is to plant the seed with this propositional school and see where it takes us.”