Unmissable Highlights of Dubai Design Week 2022

From outdoor installations and buzzy landmark projects to emerging talent hubs and compelling industry talks, these are the must-see highlights of Dubai Design Week 2022. This year Dubai Design Week will showcase a series of immersive large-scale installations across d3 that highlight the festival’s theme - Design With Impact.

Kate Barry, Director of Dubai Design Week comments, “Design With Impact is a number of short design stories on sustainability. We have engaged with regional and international architects and designers, asking them to showcase an exclusive work that has a positive effect on the environment. Impact can be driven through the innovation of new materials, recycling and/or upcycling.  Design With Impact expresses the different facets of how we can design a better future.”

 

Exhibitions

US talent, OBMI is an architecture firm with wide-ranging expertise in designing the globe's most storied destinations that captures and celebrates a sense of place. Through discovering the uniqueness in each destination, community and environment, OBMI translates this understanding into extraordinary design. Once Upon a Forest is a pavilion that plays with the perspective of the UAE’s natural heritage and resilient ecology. Its organic feel takes from the mangroves forests which comprise so much of the spectacular landscape of the United Arab Emirates – bringing the natural mangroves wharfs into the heart of the design community of the 21st century. Visitors will step under the pavilion's floating canopy and become immersed in an exploration of the protection and promise that awaits within the indigenous forest ecosystem. Tareq El Zayat, Managing Director of OBMI comments: “OBMI’s mission is always to leave the communities we serve better than we found them, designing for the best long-term outcomes for the land and communities. Our collective passion and this year’s event theme inspired OBMI to realise ‘Once Upon a Forest’ with a hope that individuals will become immersed in the beauty and importance of the region's most valuable natural treasure, supporting the preservation of mangroves toward a more sustainable future.”

Grounded Design is a Dubai-based boutique interior design studio that specialises in high-end residential, commercial and hospitality projects. Conceptualised by studio Co-founder and Creative Director Bani Singh and Project Manager Jiana Dukmak, alongside lead designers Meher Sahney and Abdul Hazeeb, soft hues and natural colours are splashed across fabric to unveil the narrative of Grounded in Hope. Rendering a habitat to birds and mammals that seek shade and protection, the installation brings to light the importance of responsible architecture in achieving peace and harmony with our planet. The installation aims to inspire environmentally conscious architecture and demonstrate how materials can be rejuvenated creatively and how responsible design can minimise environmental footprints and ensure a better life for future generations. 

Fadaa Space is an architecture and design collective based in Amman and New York City, that is dedicated to environmentally responsive design. Their installation KIN calls upon visitors to rethink their relationship with nature, to end its exploitation and live symbiotically. The KIN bricks are bio and oyster bricks, created using discarded shellfish from restaurants, along with natural, low-carbon lime, with the installation hosting native plants and species. Such commitment to sustainability has seen their project D/O Aqaba be shortlisted for Sustainable Interior at the Dezeen Awards 2022.

Derived from the idea of an inverted wave, UAE talent Quartz Architects designs its installation, How Much Does Your Debris Weigh?, out of waste that creates an enclosure for an experiential space. This design is a denotation of our future if we continue to keep the waste practices we have now. The installation displays cascading demolished materials in their raw state, strongly emphasising materiality. By exploring the condition of different materials in the architectural construction process, the installation invites us to rethink and redesign our surroundings.

A core component of Dubai Design Week has always been engaging installations, an expression of design by ways of large-scale architectural or experiential presence staged by brands, designers or special collaborations – gathering significant attention and interaction from visitors around a specific idea.⁠ This year includes topical themes such as the Metaverse, as well as exploring the changing perceptions of design in Dubai and showcasing local talent. Digital Design will be explored through the special exhibition Design in the Metaverse, powered by Dubai-based MetaDecrypt. Design in the Metaverse aims to educate and spark further discussion, focusing on hot topics such as NFTs, AR & VR Technology and virtual worlds. The Design in the Metaverse exhibition will be supported by the Metaverse Talks Programme during the week. Iwan Maktabi, the leading destination for antique carpets and textiles, as well as modern and designer carpets, will present Terminal G. The first of its kind, Terminal G is a curated collection of carpets by creative designers from five countries of the Gulf region: Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.  The collection is a unique presentation of contemporary Khaliji culture through the eyes of its creatives, using the art of weaving as a medium of expression. Neon artist Charlotte de Belle through her installation Raising Sand emphasises the magical growth of Dubai using the artistic medium of neon light.

Talks, Workshops & Masterclasses

Dubai Design Week will host a Design in the Metaverse talks programme, hosted by Dewan Architects, where key industry leaders will explore trends and innovation in the Metaverse and how its technology is now pushing the boundaries of design (11 November). Other key talks, presented as part of Source, Resource, Outsource: DXBDW Talk Programme include: State of sustainability: can architecture enter a viscous cycle, featuring Islam El Mashtooly, OBMI Creative Director and Co-Founder & Principal, FADAA Architecture (10 November). Globally renowned interior designer, Kelly Hoppen CBE will deliver a keynote, in conversation with Talib Choudray, Architectural Digest (9 November).

Dubai Design Week will also host a series of collaborative, hands-on workshops. The workshops programme provides visitors of all ages and levels the opportunity to learn something new from professors of world-renowned institutions, as well as Makers who push the envelope in material experimentation and innovative ways of creating.

Visitors can take part in a Dream Symbolism Printmaking workshop, hosted by Nassra Al Buainain, a multidisciplinary artist. The workshop will invite participants to recall significant dreams that are vivid in their memories, translating them into symbolic form. Storytelling in Social Media, is a workshop co-hosted by Lebanese filmmaker Samer Arzouni, in which participants learn about storytelling following the three act story structure, a traditional method used since the beginning of time.

UAE Designer Exhibition

Among the many highlights of Dubai Design Week’s programme is the much-anticipated UAE Designer Exhibition. A curated showcase of established and emerging regional talent from different design disciplines. Taking place in the Downtown Design tent, the exhibition offers creatives a platform for visibility among leading designers from around the globe, whilst expanding and strengthening their audience and professional network.

The space has been designed by the revered Emirati architecture duo at Studio D.04, with a nod to materials used in classical Emirati homes. Within the space will be a dynamic offering by designers such as Fatima Alawadhi, who will showcase The Vault, an installation which references conventional architectural concepts through a simple yet exquisite furniture piece. As well as other unique works such as Sediments by Talin Hazbar. The installation consists of piled structured slabs, formed in a simple unit creating a linear structure to comprise a series of seating, made of sea waste, all to benefit the Dubai Voluntary Diving team. This piece forms three among 20 thought-provoking works, created by the talented residents of the UAE, curated by Cyril Zammit.

Please visit the dubaidesignweek.ae for the full schedule of talks, workshops and events