Exhibition

Shared Grounds

Proposal for the British Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2025

Shortlisted by the British Council

A collaboration with A Small Studio, James Muriuki and Wajukuu Collective, Nairobi

Pavilion section

The story proposed by Shared Grounds for the 20th Architecture Biennale 2025 is about architecture’s relationship with its own by-products, and by extension about human interactions with the earth’s materials. Reflecting on architecture’s contribution to both climate impacts and sustainable solutions, we create a participatory installation exploring possibilities for architectural ‘waste’ as a grounds for shared material experimentation.

Through an immersive, sensory journey into the substance of architectural demolition, we ask what is waste? And how might we value it differently? Whether it is vestiges of demolished buildings in Nairobi, or the remains of slate quarried in Snowdonia, debris can be the basis for something else: for urban land reclamation along riverbanks, the foundations of new buildings – or an alternative form of furniture.

We explore this through the ‘demolition stool’.

Demolition stool

Embracing material provenance as well as repurposing, the stool champions the use and reuse of local materials, highlighting the richness of their origin. Remnants from site demolition are added to soil from excavations, mixed with biodegradable binder and poured into a mould. Once this sets, the stool is formed: at once a polished remnant from the demolition process, a practical piece of site furniture, and a symbol of the transformative journey through which architectural remainders can be revalued and repurposed.

Recognising architecture’s historical complicity in the climate emergency and ecological injustices, Shared Grounds develops a joint conversation between A Small Studio, a UK architecture practice committed to sustainability and community; James Muriuki, a Kenyan artist and curator focused on the material transformation of cities; Constance Smith, an anthropologist exploring materiality and temporality of urban landscapes; and Wajukuu, a Nairobi community arts collective committed to using art for social justice and sustainable change in their home, the informal settlement Mukuru.

Workshops

In the build-up to the Biennale, we intend to hold conversations and making workshops across four sites that engage with diverse histories of building materials, cultures of re-purposing and ecological challenges: Snowdonia and Inverness in the UK, and Nairobi and Lamu in Kenya. Using the demolition stool as an anchor, the workshops will establish site-specific knowledge exchange between the UK and in Kenya, sharing understanding of building debris, the possibilities for turning waste into architectural furniture, and the site-specific forms of ecological engagement this can generate.

The workshop stools will form the basis of an immersive, sensory Pavilion installation, alongside a series of stools made from Venetian debris. At the heart of the pavilion will be a collaborative making space in which we will host further experiments with architectural debris with the public, inviting them to contribute to our ‘shared grounds’.

Proposed installation