Noura Al Sayeh & Leopold Banchini Architects

Noura Al Sayeh Holtrop and Leopold Banchini collaborate on projects ranging in scale from small exhibitions, public installations and cultural buildings. They curated and designed the Bahrain Pavilion at the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale de Venezia, RECLAIM which was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. In 2012, they curated and designed a temporary pavilion in Bahrain for the BAB competition alongside the programming of a month-long series of talks and events hosted in the pavilion. In 2015, they designed and supervised the project for the Architectural Heritage House in Muharraq, which is their first joint permanent building, that touches on the themes of publicness and accessibility of culture that are central to their work.

Noura Al-Sayeh Holtrop is an architect and curator currently working at the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) as Head of Architectural Affairs, where she is responsible for overseeing the planning and implementation of cultural institutions and museums as well as the creation of an active agenda of exhibitions. She holds a Masters Degree in Architecture from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. She has built a number of temporary architectural installations and interventions and has worked as an architect in Jerusalem, Amsterdam and New York. She was the co-curator of Reclaim, Bahrain's first participation at the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 that was awarded a Golden Lion and the Deputy Commissioner General for Archeaologies of Green, Bahrain’s National Pavilion at the Expo Milan 2015, awarded a Silver Medal for Best Architecture and Landscape. Since 2015, she heads the Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy UNESCO World Heritage project. She has also been selected as the curator for the Hangar Exhibtion as part of the 2019 Amman Design Week.

Leopold Banchini Architects produces works ranging from small self-built installations to large scale public space projects. It has built for a multitude of cultural institutions such as the Musée du quai Branly, the Centre Pompidou, MOT Tokyo, the Centre Culturel Suisse Paris, Swissnex San Francisco, the Ministry of Culture of Bahrain, the Montreux Jazz Festival, Recyclart Bruxelles, BIG biennale Geneva or the Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa. Recently completed projects include public buildings (House of Architectural Heritage in Muharaq, with Noura Al Sayeh), private houses (Villa CCFF in Geneva, Panorama Suburbia in Hermance, Casa Terras do Monte and Casa Terreirinho in Lisbon) and interiors (Shelter inflatable bar, Centre Pompidou 3-8 project).

Leopold Banchini Architects has gained a wide recognition through a number of prices and publications. Amongst other, it was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Architectural Biennale (with Harry Gugger), the Swiss Art Awards and the first price for the CEVA Champel public space competition. Its work has been presented at the Swiss Architecture Museum, Art Basel Design at Large, CCB Lisbon, Victoria and Albert Museum, MUDAC Lausanne, etc.

Leopold Banchini Architects invests widely in research, cultural exchanges and knowledge transmission. It has conducted numerous workshops, debates and lectures worldwide. Leopold Banchini has been teaching at the HEAD Geneva and the Swiss federal institute of technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and is currently the head of the Studio for Immediate Spaces at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide worked together under the name BUREAU A until 2016.