We're delighted to present a new curatorial team of architects and curators – Jayden Ali, Joseph Henry, Meneesha Kellay and Sumitra Upham – selected by us to represent the UK at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at la Biennale di Venezia 2023.

The exhibition will explore non-extractive material culture, revealing how diasporic craft and material cultures can help foster a more sustainable future for British architecture, built on principles of care and equity over extraction and exploitation.

The curators will transform the British Pavilion into celebratory spaces, collaborating with architectural practitioners, researchers, and makers. The exhibition design intends to embrace collective construction methods and processes that avoid exploiting people and the planet.

Jayden Ali is the Founding Director of interdisciplinary practice JA Projects and a Senior Lecturer at Central Saint Martins; Joseph Henry is a designer and urbanist, co-founder of platform Sound Advice and works as part of the Culture and Creative Industries Team at the Greater London Authority; Meneesha Kellay is the Contemporary Programme Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and Sumitra Upham is a curator and writer, currently Head of Public Programmes at the Crafts Council.

Asked about the opportunity, they said: "We want to thank the Selection Committee for inviting us to curate the British Pavilion for la Biennale di Venezia 2023.

"Our exhibition will explore architecture of the diaspora through a pre-colonial lens, celebrating the spectrum of architectural philosophies, making practices and material knowledge within those communities."