The British Council has announced the team selected to represent the UK at the 20th International Architecture Exhibition of the 2027 Venice Biennale. The 2027 British Pavilion will present a UK–Malaysia collaboration marking 70 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This initiative builds on the success of the UK–Kenya collaboration at the 2025 British Pavilion, which received La Biennale’s Special Mention award.
The open call for the 2027 edition invited proposals that challenge contemporary architecture and respond to the British Council’s UK–Malaysia Human-Nature programme, which explores the relationships between people, place and the natural environment. From a shortlist of six proposals, the selected team was chosen by a panel of architects, educators and cultural professionals from the UK and Malaysia, chaired by Sevra Davis, Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council.
The project will be led by UK-based curators Dr Guan Lee and Mike Lim, alongside a curatorial team including Maria McLintock and Ben Swaby Selig. They will collaborate closely with Penang-based artisans Ng Chi Wang, Lee Shao Chin and Koh Eng Keat. The commission will explore themes of impermanence in architecture, diaspora culture and the ways migration transforms living traditions in Malaysia and around the world.
Drawing on Malaysian traditions of ritual paper architecture, the installation will reference temporary structures made from recycled paper on bamboo frames. It will take inspiration from the Hungry Ghost Festival, where ceremonial structures are created, used and then released.
Sevra Davis, Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council, said the project celebrates 70 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Malaysia and highlights the role of architecture, ritual and cultural memory. She added that the exhibition builds on the success of the UK–Kenya collaboration in 2025 and continues the British Council’s commitment to fostering cultural connection through the Venice Biennale.
The appointed curatorial team said they are honoured to bring the Festival of Hungry Ghosts to the British Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2027 as a celebration of diasporic culture and living traditions shaped by migration. They explained that the festival, which reflects acts of care for ancestors and wandering spirits, is grounded in a construction tradition where impermanence is seen as a guiding principle rather than a limitation. They added that building for disappearance represents one of the most radical approaches to architectural thinking today.
Jazreel Goh, Country Director Malaysia at the British Council, said the collaboration presents an opportunity to celebrate UK–Malaysia creative exchange on a global platform in conjunction with 70 years of diplomatic relations. She noted that the project’s focus on ritual architecture, migration and regenerative design is both timely and relevant.
Pei Tsen Yeoh, Director of YTL Construction and member of the selection committee, said that following a rigorous two-stage process, the selected proposal presents a sensitive, joyful and culturally grounded approach that successfully balances conceptual ambition with practical delivery. She added that positioning ritual architecture as a model for regenerative futures gives the project both poetic depth and contemporary relevance.
The Selection Committee for the 2027 British Pavilion includes representatives from architecture, design, culture and heritage organisations across the UK and Malaysia, chaired by Sevra Davis of the British Council.
The curatorial team brings together diverse expertise. Dr Guan Lee, born in Malaysia, is founding director of Grymsdyke Farm and Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, with a practice focused on process-led design and material exploration. Mike Lim, a British architect of Malaysian heritage, is co-founder of IDK, a London and Paris-based studio whose work includes major cultural projects such as the David Bowie Centre at V&A East Storehouse and upcoming commissions at Tate Modern and the V&A.
Maria McLintock is a curator, writer and lecturer with experience across leading institutions including the Design Museum London, MoMA New York and Ikon Gallery. She also works on research projects exploring migration systems and will begin a PhD at The Bartlett, UCL. Ben Swaby Selig is a London-based curator and sound artist at V&A East whose practice combines material culture, technology and public engagement through exhibitions, performances and installations.
The Malaysia-based artisan team includes Ng Chi Wang and Lee Shao Chin of Lian Yin Art in Penang, specialists in traditional paper and bamboo craft, and Koh Eng Keat of 358 Custom Effigies Workshop in George Town, who continues a family tradition of producing intricate paper effigies and sculptural works, some of which have been exhibited internationally.
Together, the collaboration brings together architecture, craft and cultural memory to explore how traditions of making and impermanence can inform contemporary architectural thinking on a global stage.