Curators Unveil Theme of 3rd Sharjah Architecture Triennial
Curator Vyjayanthi Rao and associate curator Tau Tavengwa have revealed “Architecture Otherwise: Building Civic Infrastructure for Collective Futures” as the theme for the 3rd Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT03), which will launch in November 2026.
When the announcement was made in May that Vyjayanthi Rao and Tau Tavengwa would be, respectively, curator and associate curator of SAT03, we mused that Rao's background in socio-cultural anthropology and her critical writings on urbanism and the built environment would provide hints to the exhibition's theme. Suitably, Architecture Otherwise: Building Civic Infrastructure for Collective Futures will “adopt a multi-disciplinary perspective grounded in anthropology, attuned to human relationships and cultural context” per this week's announcement. The curatorial statement says more:
“This edition adopts a multi-disciplinary perspective, exploring architecture through the lens of anthropology, grounded in the locality of phenomena and context and remaining attentive simultaneously to global conditions and cultural difference. We are especially interested in exploring migratory movement and the rapid extension and localization of urbanism as building blocks of contemporary social life. The edition will foreground propositions for building civic infrastructure hospitable to these flows, creating new pathways for collective life to prosper in an uncertain and rapidly mutating world.”
The third edition will focus on the growing complexity and dominance of urban life, particularly in fast-developing regions: “Today, urbanization shapes nearly every facet of experience; few parts of the world remain untouched by its influence. Social, economic, political, technological and ecological forces now collide within a vast, tangled fabric of connectivity that structures how we move, work and communicate. Every shift reverberates across this global web, unsettling established ways of belonging. In a world characterized by constant movement – of people, goods, ideas and beings – urban territories stand at the forefront of the urgent effort to rebuild the human collective and to stabilize and improve our fragile shared futures.”
Rather than universal, context-free solutions to what are ultimately local problems, Architecture Otherwise will proffer an approach “that reimagines the urban through values of interdependence, hospitality and care; that creates spaces for shared life, mutual recognition and collective possibility; and that facilitates processes for living and prospering together, rather than merely imposing form.”
How will Architecture Otherwise become a months-long exhibition come November 2026? Given how the theme continues SAT's wider mission of addressing issues relevant to West Asia, South Asia, and the African continent, the curators will convene architects, artists, designers, scholars, cultural institutions, and local communities from across the Gulf and the Global South to “bring the Triennial into direct dialogue with the region.” Physically, SAT03 will embed site-specific installations, exhibitions, performances, workshops, and public events in Sharjah and the larger emirate. Some of the contributors to the exhibition will undertake month-long residencies in Sharjah, creating installations that the curators hope “will activate a wide range of urban spaces and invite audiences to engage in critical conversations about the future of architecture and civic life.”
The next news to come out of SAT03 will be its second public event, in November 2025, when the curators will announce the first group of participants. Being held a year ahead of opening, that announcement will be followed by a conversation between the selected participants and the curators.