At 33, Sumayya Vally became the youngest architect ever to design the Serpentine Pavilion in London. Her 2021 pavilion drew from the architecture of mosques, markets, and gathering spaces of migrant communities across the city — a radical departure from the sleek modernism typically associated with the commission.
Born in 1990 in Johannesburg, Vally founded Counterspace Studio — a practice of fewer than 10 people that TIME named one of its 100 Most Influential Companies in 2021. Remarkable for a studio that small.
Her work connects architecture to postcolonial thought, finding design inspiration in the informal gathering spaces that power city-level culture rather than the monumental gestures that typically define architectural prestige.
In 2026, Vally was commissioned for one of 9 Art Basel Qatar Special Projects — the largest group of new commissions in Art Basel history. The commission places her alongside established practitioners in what amounts to a museum-scale solo presentation.
Counterspace's approach represents a generational shift: architecture as cultural archaeology rather than spectacle. Every project starts with deep research into how communities actually gather, not how they're supposed to.