In this new experimental series of slow tours, we invite designers, artists, writers, researchers, and critical thinkers to return to the space of the Avenue as a subject of their study. Encouraging participants to observe, read, and listen to their immediate built environments through unique creative prompts, these slow tours become site-specific projects that unfold as they are experienced.

This time, we are joined by architect, artist, and researcher Zahra Mansoor who, through her own practice as well as collective observation, will guide participants to use the Avenue as a departure point to think about the ephemerality of space and its role in influencing collective memory.

About Zahra Mansoor

Zahra Mansoor is an artist, architectural designer, and researcher currently based in the UAE. In 2020, she co-founded Another Empty House, a research project which looks at the influence of the Gulf on the rise in empty domestic houses on Kerala’s urban landscape. Additionally, she co-founded Muslim Women in Architecture (MWA), a network and collective working to empower, inspire and celebrate Muslim women in the built environment industry. Collaborations include Amity University (Dubai), Gulf Creative Collective (Dubai Design District), London Festival of Architecture (London), The Architecture Foundation (London), Soho House (London), and Design Museum (London). She is currently part of the Salama Bint Hamdan Fellowship: Cohort 9, where she is investigating memory and aspirations as a result of migration. She is investigating her grandfather’s migration to the Gulf in the 80s, the memories associated with it, and how this has influenced the renovation of an ancestral home in Kerala.

The Slow Walk will begin at The Yard.