Counterspace

Counterspace is an award-winning architecture and research practice led by its Principal, Professor Sumayya Vally. The practice occupies a space between the functional and the speculative; pedagogy and praxis; simultaneously describing cities and their histories and futures, and imagining them.

Inspired by its location, Johannesburg, Counterspace is committed to developing design form, particularly for the continent – through design research, publishing, pedagogy, built things, buildings, and other forms of architecture. The practice’s current projects are focused on expressions for African and Islamic hybrid identities – both rooted and diasporic.