Architect Sumayya Vally and poet and co-founder of Bankstown Poetry Slam Sara Mansour discuss how places can be designed to bring communities together.
Vally was artistic director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in 2023, which demonstrated new ways that public spaces can be designed as cultural places. Vally’s practice of placemaking honours communities’ cultural needs; including ritual, faith and tradition.
Sumayya Vally is the principal at Counterspace, an award-winning architecture and research practice with offices in Johannesburg and London. She was named Emerging Architect of the Year at the 2023 Dezeen Awards and was artistic director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale that same year. In 2021, Vally was the youngest architect to design the annual Serpentine Pavilion in London. Her practice explores identity, community and belonging.
Sara Mansour is a lawyer, poet and co-founder of Bankstown Poetry Slam, the first poetry slam in Western Sydney and now the largest event of its kind in Australia. She was a 2024 NSW Young Australian of the Year Nominee and named Outstanding Youth Leader at the 2017 ZEST Awards. She is a board member of the Crescent Institute and the Monkey Baa Theatre Company, and volunteers with the Arise Foundation.
