Connections as Method

With vital insights into situated spatial practices across the Arab Gulf and its adjacencies, Connections as Method: Relational Pedagogies and Participatory Spatial Practice is informed by research, approaches, and perspectives from more than sixty international contributors. The volume draws on the first year of The Um Slaim School—a pioneering initiative that emerges from the work of Riyadh-based Syn Architects and their collaborators, as convened by Beatrice Leanza and Maryam AlNoaimi for the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Biennale Architettura 2025. Featuring architects, artists, educators, urbanists, and writers, these interactions pilot methodologies of knowledge exchange to establish south-south networks of coproduction across disciplinary boundaries. Tracing transnational alliances, case studies, and thematics from the school’s first year, subjects of inquiry challenge established architectural canons, centering alternative spatial histories and material practices to address urgent ecological and social concerns.