DUBAI: Dubai Design Week is set to return to Dubai Design District (d3) from Nov. 3 to 8 for its 12th edition, with a program of exhibitions, commissions, installations, talks, workshops and activations.
Held under the patronage of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, the festival will focus this year on 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,” Natasha Carella, director of Dubai Design Week, said in a statement.
At the heart of the week is Downtown Design, the region’s fair for contemporary design, which runs from Nov. 4 to 8. International exhibitors include German appliance brand Gaggenau, Italian glassmaker Venini, Italian outdoor furniture brand Ethimo and Kohler, which is presenting a collaboration with Dubai-based architect Agata Kurzela.
Rug and collectible design company Iwan Maktabi will show new works by UAE-based designers Nadine Kanso and Omar Al-Gurg, while new furniture studio Contemporary Spaces, founded by Emirati siblings Alya, Maitha and Obaid Al-Suwaidi, is among this year’s first-time participants.
The fair will also feature 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.
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 that arranges 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 moving from individual pavilions to a group exhibition under the theme “In Other Words,” exploring language through signage, symbols, gestures and oral histories.
Large-scale installations across d3 include works by US firm Arquitectonica, Japan’s Nikken Sekkei and SOBOKUYA, Palestinian-Turkish practice aestudio, which will turn reclaimed concrete rubble into new architectural forms, and Bahrain’s Palm and Palazzo, whose installation “BAYN” explores privacy and social connection in the traditional Bahraini home. Emirati architect Rasha Saffarini will present “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 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.
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.
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.
