Living stories: art, space and memory

What does it mean to tell stories through the spaces we live in? And how can architecture be a source of memory and repair?

In this bonus episode of Our World, Connected, host Christine Wilson revisits a powerful conversation with Kabage Karanja, architect, researcher, and co-founder of Nairobi-based design studio Cave_bureau.

A leading voice in rethinking architecture through the lens of ecology, memory, and justice, Kabage shares his reflections on vernacular architecture, the legacy of British colonialism, and the importance of caves as spaces of cultural knowledge. His work, including the groundbreaking UK-Kenya collaboration Geology of Britannic Repair, exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, asks urgent questions about how we live, what we build, and what we choose to remember.

Christine also draws on insights from other voices featured in Season 2 — including artist Rosie Olang’ Odhiambo and filmmaker Noé Mendelle — to explore how storytelling takes many forms, from exhibitions and documentaries to the natural world around us. Together, these creative practitioners show how the stories we choose to tell can become tools for connection, repair, and collective healing.

Listen to Our World, Connected, brought to you by the British Council. Subscribe and follow for more thought-provoking conversations on culture, communication, and the power of storytelling.

Additional Resources & Links:

Digital Cultural Heritage: Imagination, innovation and opportunity

https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-insight/digital-cultural-heritage

UK Arts, Culture and Young People: Innovative practice and trends

https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-insight/UK-arts-young-people

OFF/TRACK Collective: Imagining New forms of Cultural Production

https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-insight/new-cultural-production

Focus on Ukraine – Supporting Decolonisation in Museums

https://arts.britishcouncil.org/resources/focus-ukraine-supporting-decolonisation-museums

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