The Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2026 has announced the opening programme of its third edition, titled Architecture Otherwise: Building Civic Infrastructure for Collective Futures. Writer and anthropologist Vyjayanthi Rao curates the Triennial with Associate Curator Tau Tavengwa. It runs from November 14, 2026, to April 14, 2027, and its six-day opening programme takes place from November 14 to 19 across the Emirate of Sharjah.
Rao co-curated the opening programme with Sharmeen Inayat, the Triennial’s Research and Civic Engagement Curator. It combines participatory projects, live performances, film screenings, lectures and discussions, and it ends with a two-day international conference on November 18 and 19. The edition brings together 35 participants whose multidisciplinary practices examine architecture through the relationships, knowledge and forms of exchange that shape collective life.
Al Qasimiyah School, Internal Courtyard, Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Image © Ahmed Osama. Courtesy of Sharjah Architecture Triennial
Events will take place at several locations, including Al Qasimiyah School, Al Jubail Vegetable Market, Al Madam Buried Village and the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization. During the opening week, participant-led tours and live interventions will introduce visitors to the installations and research on show. One of them is Tumblespace (or What Binds Us?) by Aslıhan Demirtaş, Ali Cindoruk and Dilşad Aladağ, a nomadic structure that explores connections between people, movement and place through temporary spaces for gathering and exchange.
Performance forms a large part of the week, and several works treat sound and movement as ways of experiencing space. Badriyah Alsalem will present The Houses of the Moon and Names of the Sun, performance lectures that draw on observation, poetry and cultural astronomy to examine relationships between landscape, time and the sky. Pakistani-American singer Ali Sethi will present BORROWED TIME: trails and tentacles in popular music. Choreographer Omar Rajeh will show Origami Bodies in dialogue with Ziad Jamaleddine’s SAT project Lalla Alwyia, Khalwa.
Al Qasimiyah School, Exterior View, Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Image © Ahmed Osama. Courtesy of Sharjah Architecture Triennial
That collaboration joins movement informed by maqam, a practice of instantaneous composition, with a reinterpretation of the khalwa, a secluded space traditionally associated with Sufi retreat and meditation. The film programme turns from the stage to the city itself, looking at urban development, housing and the social histories embedded in infrastructure. The Tower: A Concrete Utopia, by Filip De Boeck and Sammy Baloji, considers independent approaches to urban space in Kinshasa, while Cassim Shepard’s Housing Agency: Incremental Mumbai explores how informal settlement practices have influenced alternative housing approaches in India.
Read more:
Two further films follow the same thread. Ignacio Gatica’s Sanhattan examines Santiago’s financial district and its relationship to New York, and Ruchir Joshi’s Memories of Milk City addresses memory and displacement in Ahmedabad. Conversations and roundtables then bring architects, artists, researchers and cultural practitioners into dialogue with participants and curators. The opening conversation, Building Civic Muscles, will examine how everyday practices, identities, economies and social relations shape the built environment, with Edgar Pieterse, Mabel O. Wilson and Paola Antonelli joining Rao and Tavengwa.
- The Action is the Form: moderated by Sharmeen Inayat
- The Trouble with Images: filmmaker Rania Stephan and artist Amarnath Praful, moderated by Thomas Keenan
- Additional roundtables: urban transformation in the Gulf, cities and time, and sound as a spatial practice, including a session with Yousef and Elias Anastas of Radio Alhara
Al Jubail Vegetable Market. Image © Ahmed Osama. Courtesy of Sharjah Architecture Triennial
The week closes with the conference Area Studies, Global Studies and Urban Studies: History, Politics and the Epistemology of Locality, organised with Global Studies University and hosted at Africa Hall. It will examine how knowledge about cities and regions is produced and how local histories and experiences challenge dominant narratives of urban development. Panels will address ecological and temporal negotiations in architecture, everyday urban planning, and the institutions and collective practices that emerge after rupture and displacement.
Participants include Rachaporn Choochuey, Soumini Raja, Mona El Mousfy, Hessa Al Nuaimi, Catalina Ortiz, Neha Vora, Dubravka Sekulić, Emily Jacir, Filip de Boeck, Ibrahim Nehme and Camila Palomino. The Triennial then continues through April 14, 2027, across its venues in the United Arab Emirates.
Jane Doe is an American architectural editor with a deep-rooted passion for design and the built environment. She holds a degree in Architecture from Columbia University, where she developed a strong foundation in both architectural theory and urban studies. With over a decade of editorial experience, Jane specializes in shaping content that bridges architecture, urbanism, and cultural discourse. Her work spans leading design publications, exhibition texts, and digital platforms, where she is known for her clear, engaging narratives and her ability to translate complex spatial ideas for a broad audience. Jane is particularly interested in issues of equity, sustainability, and the evolving role of cities in a changing world.