Dubai Design Week's 12th Edition Set to Boost Regional Design Trade

Dubai Design Week returns to Dubai Design District (d3) from Nov. 3 to 8 for its 12th edition, bringing a program of exhibitions, commissions, installations, talks, workshops and activations to a festival that has become one of the region’s most established design marketplaces.

The commercial anchor of the week remains Downtown Design, the region’s fair for contemporary design, running from Nov. 4 to 8. The exhibitor list reads as a snapshot of international brands competing for Gulf market share: German appliance maker Gaggenau, Italian glassmaker Venini, Italian outdoor furniture brand Ethimo and Kohler, which is presenting a collaboration with Dubai-based architect Agata Kurzela.

Regional players are also expanding their presence. Rug and collectible design company Iwan Maktabi will show new works by UAE-based designers Nadine Kanso and Omar Al-Gurg, while first-time participant Contemporary Spaces, a new furniture studio founded by Emirati siblings Alya, Maitha and Obaid Al-Suwaidi, joins the roster. The fair will also host a Memphis Milano exhibit, a Buccellati pop-up created with British designer Luke Edward Hall, and a Veuve Clicquot lounge designed by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori.

Held under the patronage of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, the festival this year turns its focus to the role design can play in strengthening connection. “Design influences how we live, how our cities function and how we respond to change. Dubai Design Week is an opportunity to examine that wider role,” festival director Natasha Carella said in a statement.

Beyond the fair floor, the competition and commissioning side of the event signals where new design talent and investment are flowing. This year’s Urban Commissions competition, themed “Atmospheres,” was won by Dubai-based NAO Architects, founded by architect Reem Nassour, for “Three Gardens and a Room,” a proposal arranging three gardens around a shared central space for visitors to gather in.

Abwab, the festival’s commissioning program for practitioners from Asia and Africa, is shifting format, moving from individual pavilions to a group exhibition under the theme “In Other Words,” which explores language through signage, symbols, gestures and oral histories.

Large-scale installations across d3 draw on a mix of international and regional practices. US firm Arquitectonica, Japan’s Nikken Sekkei and SOBOKUYA, and Palestinian-Turkish practice aestudio, which will turn reclaimed concrete rubble into new architectural forms, are among the contributors. Bahrain’s Palm and Palazzo presents “BAYN,” an installation exploring privacy and social connection in the traditional Bahraini home, while Emirati architect Rasha Saffarini will show “Taqleem,” inspired by the traditional practice of palm-tree trimming.

The UAE Designer Exhibition, supported by Dubai Culture, returns under the theme “Inherited Futures,” with Emirati architect and designer AlZaina Lootah serving as this year’s design collaborator. Other exhibitions include a retrospective by architecture firm Woods Bagot marking 25 years in the region, and a show by L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, supported by Van Cleef & Arpels, on the lost goldsmithing techniques of the Second Iron Age.

Platform and lifestyle brands are also buying in. Pinterest will make its Dubai Design Week debut with an activation featuring designers and artists who use the platform, while Ethr will present “Desert Dweller,” a take on the Bedouin tent designed by architect Omar Darwish.

The talks program closes the loop between design and business: French interior architect Tristan Auer will deliver the keynote at The Forum at Downtown Design, and a weekend marketplace featuring regional independent makers will run on Nov. 7 and 8, giving smaller producers direct access to the festival’s audience.