• The AlMusalla Prize exhibition, featuring the winning design by EAST Architecture Studio with Rayyane Tabet and AKT II along with the other shortlisted projects, will be presented as a Collateral Event at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia from May 10 to November 23, 2025.
• The exhibition explores how architectural practices rooted in transience and adaptability can reshape our understanding of built environments.

The Diriyah Biennale Foundation presents Rooted Transience, an exhibition showcasing the winning design for the inaugural AlMusalla Prize 2025 at the Abbazia Di San Gregorio as a Collateral Event of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Faysal Tabbarah, the exhibition examines the typology of musallas—temporary prayer spaces that can materialize wherever they are needed—and the architectural possibilities that emerge when we learn from material practices rooted in transience and adaptability.

Rooted Transience highlights the multivalent natures of musalla spaces. Specifically, the exhibition explores the entangled relationships between the historical, material, and contemporary registers within which musalla spaces emerge. The exhibition includes full-scale fragments of the AlMusalla Prize’s winning design by EAST Architecture Studio in collaboration with artist Rayyane Tabet and engineering firm AKT II and, alongside works from shortlisted firms AAU Anastas, Asif Khan, Dabbagh Architects, and Office of Sahel AlHiyari for Architecture. The projects are presented alongside a series of archival images and documents related to the architectural history of musallas, placing the contemporary work in dialogue with historical spatial practices in Islamic societies.

Launched by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the 2025 AlMusalla Prize was first presented at the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah in January 2025. Titled On Weaving, the winning design features a central courtyard surrounded by a prayer hall and celebrates the Saudi date palm tree by utilizing its waste as the primary building material. Palm fronds are introduced as alternatives to a column-and-beam structure, and palm fibers form a façade inspired by traditional techniques of weaving that envelops the entire pavilion.

Prince Nawaf bin Ayyaf, jury chair of the AlMusalla Prize: “Venice has long been a crossroads of cultural exchange, making it the perfect setting to dive deeper into how the untapped architectural typology of a musalla can contribute to contemporary discourse around sustainable and adaptable architecture. By bringing fragments of the AlMusalla Prize from Jeddah to Venice, we are hoping to demonstrate how traditional architectural practices relying on sustainability, impermanence, and flexibility can generate fresh ideas and solutions for tomorrow.”

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication focused on the transient nature of musalla spaces, which will be co-edited by Prince Nawaf Bin Ayyaf and Faysal Tabbara and published by KAPH.

ABOUT THE ALMUSALLA PRIZE

The AlMusalla Prize is an international architecture competition for designing modular spaces for prayer and contemplation, open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the prize celebrates innovative architectural practices while honoring Islamic cultural traditions. The inaugural edition of the AlMusalla Prize 2025 featured a jury of Ali Malkawi, Azra Aksamija, Farrokh Derakhshani, Lina Ghotmeh, and Prince Nawaf Bin Ayyaf as jury chair. Shortlisted architects for this edition included AAU Anastas, Asif Khan, Dabbagh Architects, Office of Sahel AlHiyari for Architecture, and EAST Architecture Studio as winners for this inaugural edition.

ABOUT THE ISLAMIC ARTS BIENNALE

The Diriyah Biennale Foundation’s Islamic Arts Biennale provides a holistic platform for new discourse about Islamic arts, offering an unparalleled space for learning, research, and insight. The exhibition takes place every two years at the Aga Khan Award–winning Western Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, a city that for centuries has represented a junction point for cultural exchange and a venue that acts as a port of entry for millions of pilgrims on their journey to Makkah and Madinah. The first edition of the Biennale welcomed more than 600,000 visitors, and the second edition builds on this success in an expanded form. The Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 partners include Lead Partner Lexus and Principal Partners BSF, King Abdulaziz International Airport, Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR), and Saudia.

ABOUT THE DIRIYAH BIENNALE FOUNDATION

Inspired by the changes taking place in Saudi Arabia and the heritage site of Diriyah, and Chaired by H.H. Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation (DBF) assumes a critical role in nurturing creative expression and instilling an appreciation for culture and the arts and their transformative potential. The Foundation aspires to be a catalyst for lifelong learning and serves Saudi Arabia’s communities by offering opportunities to engage with the burgeoning local art scene. Central to the Foundation’s mandate is to stage two recurring world-class Biennales of contemporary and Islamic arts, year-round interactive educational programs, and overseeing the activation of JAX, a creative district with industrial heritage in Diriyah. At this historical moment of evolution and growth in Saudi Arabia, DBF’s Biennales showcase some of the world’s leading artists, drive cultural exchange between the Kingdom and international communities, promote dialogue and understanding, and further establish Saudi Arabia as an important cultural center.

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