The Sharjah Architecture Triennial has announced the theme for its upcoming edition: Architecture Otherwise: Building Civic Infrastructure for Collective Futures. Scheduled for November 2026, the event will unfold across the city and the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE, through site-specific installations, exhibitions, performances, workshops, and public programs. Positioned as a platform for architectural and urban exploration across West Asia, South Asia, and the African continent, the Triennial will combine practical and theoretical approaches to contemporary urban life. Conceived by its curators, Vyjayanthi Rao and Tau Tavengwa, SAT03 aims to explore how architecture can shape collective life in regions undergoing rapid urban transformation. Consequently, selected participants will take part in month-long residencies, embedding their work within the social and cultural fabric of Sharjah.
Architecture Otherwise addresses the complexity and global prevalence of urban life, with a particular focus on rapidly developing regions. According to the curators, cities are evolving into hyper-connected infrastructural networks, "a primary terrain where social, economic, political, technological, and ecological forces collide, fundamentally reshaping how we live, connect, and build together." Urban environments thus become the central focus of this disciplinary inquiry, approached in its broadest sense to include territorial and cultural differences, digital realms, migratory flows, and global interconnection. At the heart of the Triennial lies the question of architecture's role, and its potential responses, as a "critical and imaginative force" within this complex and layered context.
Curators for the third edition of the Triennial were announced in May 2025. Leading the curatorial team is Vyjayanthi Rao, an anthropologist, writer, artist, and curator based in New York and Mumbai. She will be joined by Tau Tavengwa, curator from London and Cape Town, as associate curator. Rao's multidisciplinary perspective and deep understanding of context, cultivated through her background in socio-cultural anthropology, are expected to bring fresh insights to the Triennial. Her work critically examines urbanism and the built environment, particularly in India and the United States, bridging research and public engagement.
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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. - Curator Vyjayanthi Rao
At the time of the announcement, the curators expressed their intention to "open up new ways of thinking about what a triennial like Sharjah can become over time, leaving behind tangible strategies and ideas that respond to the needs and challenges of contemporary urban centers across the Global South and beyond." In line with this vision, SAT03 will bring together architects, artists, designers, scholars, cultural institutions, and local communities from across the Gulf and the Global South to engage in site-specific installations, exhibitions, performances, workshops, and public events throughout the city. Selected participants will also take part in month-long residencies in Sharjah, allowing them to ground their proposals within the city's cultural and social fabric. The aim is to produce lasting tools, insights, and frameworks that extend beyond the event itself, contributing to a more inclusive and enduring architectural discourse.
The first group of participants will be announced in November 2025, during a public event marking one year until the Triennial's opening. The previous edition of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, curated by Tosin Oshinowo, took place from November 11, 2023, to March 10, 2024, under the theme The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability. Highlighting innovation across the Global South, the event featured the work of 29 architects from 25 countries and emphasized sustainable and equitable approaches to the built environment. Sharjah, recognized as a cultural hub that blends tradition with contemporary modernity, is also undergoing significant transformation. Recently, Zaha Hadid Architects unveiled the design for a masterplan in Khalid Bin Sultan City, adjacent to its BEEAH Headquarters, while architecture firm HWKN was commissioned to develop a fully AI-planned commercial district in the city center.
Editor's note: This article was originally published by Maria-Cristina Florian on May 2, 2025. It was updated on June 30, 2025, to include information on the event's theme, following its official announcement.
