Samira Aden is a transnational architect and design researcher whose work operates at the intersection of art, architecture, emerging technologies, and social justice. Rooted in Afrocentric narratives, her practice treats material knowledge as an embodied inheritance and a form of design intelligence, framing materiality as a knowledge system produced through climate, craft, and collective practice. Her work positions materials not as neutral resources, but as carriers of cultural memory, environmental agency, and spatial meaning. She has held research positions at leading institutions, including the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science in Melbourne, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Energy and Materials, and the research platform Bau Kunst Erfinden, and has collaborated with internationally recognised architectural offices. Her research and practice focus on renewable material systems and architecture, with particular expertise in large-scale solar-active applications, linking material experimentation to questions of architectural resilience and environmental responsibility. At the Pan-African Biennale, Samira serves as Lead Curator – Energy and Materials Futures, where she brings together material innovation, sustainable energy systems, and spatial sovereignty.