Sumayya Vally and Alejandro Aravena on 'Studio B: Unscripted'

Sumayya Vally is the founder of Johannesburg's Counterspace, curator of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale, and designer of the 2021 Serpentine Pavilion; at thirty years old, Vally is the youngest architect to receive the prestigious commission. Alejandro Aravena is the founder of Santiago's Elemental, recipient of the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize, and curator of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale; he is known for a series of incremental housing projects built in South and Latin America.

Vally and Aravena start the two-part, 45-minute program by talking about the respective “tipping points” in their respective practices, before moving on to questions from the audience about architectural education inherited from the West, the global housing crisis, the communicative role of architecture, among other topics. In part two, the architects speak about the political and social situations in their respective home countries, discuss social housing some more, and field more questions from the audience. An in-depth conversation worth watching.