A PARALLEL RELAY performance
SAT 07:30CET

Weaving Networks, Traversing Scales
Lana Judeh + Mirna Pedalo

In this “process-in-thinking” conversation, Lana Judeh (Birzeit University) and Mirna Pedalo (RCA) will start to forge a link between histories, contemporary realities and potential futurities in Palestine and Bosnia & Herzegovina; the two contested geographies where the question of the nation state project remains either unsolved, obstructed or severely challenged. They aim to do so through unpacking the existing social, economic and ecological infrastructures in their respective homelands, and in relation to the production of the built environment. By scrutinising, comparing, and contrasting the current conditions on the ground, they will discuss speculative scenarios that have the potency to generate more progressive modes of governance and new forms of emancipatory practices. In bringing these imaginaries together, this conversation draws on the RELAY’s leading questions “How can we speak to one another? How can we speak together?” to also ask the already implicit question “How can we learn from each other?”.

Lana Judeh is an architect who teaches at Birzeit University, Palestine. She previously worked on Riwaq's revitalization projects of historic centres in Palestinian villages where she also conducted research on local historic built environments and practices. She holds an MA in Architecture, Cultural Identity and Globalisation from the University of Westminster, UK, and a BSc in Architectural Engineering from Birzeit University. Lana is a member of the editorial team of Arab Urbanism; a platform for critical ideas on the past, present, and future of cities and urbanism in the Arab region. She is also a co-founder of Group28 (2016-2018), a research collective looking at the built environment in Palestine mainly through exploring architecture and diverse forms of urbanism, and the related socio-cultural, political and economic issues. Her areas of interest currently revolve around speculative design research with a focus on indigenous ecological knowledge, and local modes of production in Palestine and the region.

Mirna Pedalo is a London-based architectural practitioner, researcher and scholar interested in the intersection of architecture, urban development and finance in post-conflict societies, particularly in the Western Balkans. Originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mirna has lived and worked in the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland and the UK. She holds a PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a recipient of the RIBA President’s Award for Research 2019 in the Cities and Community category. Mirna is an Associate Lecturer at the School of Architecture, Royal College of Art, Oxford Brookes University and University of Westminster.