New Models is a lecture series that invites practitioners from different disciplines to discuss how their work can change the models around which society is organised. These conversations will address how we can shift power structures, socio-economic forces and structural inequalities present in society today to give us new tools to rethink the world around us.​
Architecture is a condensation and an overlaying of times, stories, field notes, excerpts, archaeologies and forensic samplings. Searching for and listening to architectures and archives in places that have long been overlooked and on the margins allows to sharpen our perspectives on the inextricable connections between history, forces of labour, race and class struggles, capitalism, toxicity and climate change. Diverse origins and forms of practice that bring to light our deep pasts and deep futures are not novel or radical – they are simply implicit and imperative.
Counterspace is a Johannesburg-based collaborative architectural studio led by its founder and principal, Sumayya Vally. Counterspace is inspired by its location – Johannesburg – and is committed to developing design expression particularly for the continent – through design research, publishing, pedagogy, built things, buildings and other forms of architecture. The studio is an exploration into evolving methods of collaborative practice and research, and it operates adjacent to the academy, with Sumayya leading Unit 12 at the Graduate School of Architecture, Johannesburg and collaborations on several research projects with the school and the City. Counterspace also runs Counterparts, an interdisciplinary space, residency, dialogue and publishing platform, with an interest in tracing, seeding and carving collaborative ways of working.
Sumayya’s design, research and pedagogical practice is committed to finding expression for hybrid identities and contested territories. She is in love with Johannesburg. It serves as her laboratory for finding speculative histories, futures, archaeologies, and design languages; with the intent to reveal the invisible. Her work is often forensic, and draws on performance, the supernatural, the wayward and the overlooked as generative places of history and work. She is presently based between Johannesburg and London as the lead designer for the Serpentine Pavilion 2020/20 Plus 1.
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