AA alum Guan Lee to co-lead British Pavilion at 20th Venice Architecture Biennale

AA alum Guan Lee will co-lead the British Pavilion at the 20th Venice Architecture Biennale next year alongside curator Mike Lim and with support from a curatorial team including Maria McLintock and Ben Swaby Selig. The team will work collaboratively with Malaysia-based artisans – Ng Chi Wang, Lee Shao Chin and Koh Eng Keat – to mark 70 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Malaysia in 2027. This collaboration builds on the British Council’s UK–Malaysia Human-Nature programme, which explores relationships between people, place and the natural environment. The exhibition at the British Pavilion will examine impermanence in architecture, diaspora culture and the influence of migration on traditions – drawing on the Malaysia team’s background in traditional paper architecture and taking inspiration from the Hungry Ghost Festival. In a statement to announce the news, the curatorial team said that the festival is ‘a joyful celebration of diasporic culture and the living traditions that travel, transform, and endure through migration … this living ritual has travelled to Malaysia and now to Venice, transforming with each passage.’ 

Guan is an architect, lecturer and the founder of Grymsdyke Farm in Buckinghamshire, a workshop and studio space that explores the relationship between craft, materials and design. The 20th Venice Architecture Biennale will take place between May – November 2027. Find out more here.  

Image Credits: Liz Seabrook