Re-centring architecture’s relationship to geology is crucial not only for understanding its past and present, but also for imagining how it might evolve differently in the future. GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair is a unique UK–Kenya collaboration that seeks to unearth ‘other architectures’ – alternatives that offer possibilities for repair, restitution and renewal.
The exhibition’s geographical, geological and conceptual focus is rooted in the British Pavilion’s alignment along an axis that stretches from Britain in the north-west to Kenya and the Great Rift Valley in the south-east. From this ‘rift’ emerge a series of installations that propose architectures grounded in their relationship to the earth, resisting conventional extractive practices and demonstrating resilience in the face of climate breakdown, as well as social and political upheaval.
Exploring the relationship between architecture and colonisation as parallel, interconnected practices, the exhibition is made up of a series of installations by Cave_bureau, Mae-ling Lokko and Gustavo Crembil, Thandi Loewenson and the Palestine Regeneration Team / PART (Yara Sharif, Nasser Golzari and Murray Fraser).
Rather than presenting fixed solutions, the exhibition seeks to uncover what architecture and colonialism have long marginalised, transforming the British Pavilion into a space for reimagining the relationship between architecture and the earth.
The exhibition runs from 10 May to 23 November 2025.
‘GBR – Geology of Britannic Repair aims to re-centre architecture’s fundamental relationship to geology, shifting how we see its past and present and re-orienting its future otherwise. With the Great Rift Valley as the exhibition’s geological and conceptual focus, we have brought together a series of installations that propose ‘other architectures’ defined by their relationship to the ground, their resistance to conventional, extractive ways of working, and that are resilient in the face of climate breakdown and social and political upheaval. Turning the British Pavilion inside out, we hope the exhibition will become a vital site for reimagining the relationship between architecture and the earth.’
Curatorial Team
Film: John Ingle © British Council
Visual identity: TEMPLO
