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Dubai Design Week, an international design fair that demonstrates the region’s commitment to platforming art, design, architecture, and fashion, returns this year with its eighth iteration. The festival, open to the public from 8 November to 13 November 2022, is being held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Chairperson of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and a member of the Dubai Council. This design week in the global East is dedicated to platforming designers through a diverse set of exhibitions and showcases. The design festival is curated by and being held in the Dubai Design District (D3), the city’s regional hub for design and creativity. Through an array of experiential exhibits and interactive installations, the annual design event highlights latest creations from the ever-evolving design industry.
Dubai Design Week 2022, with the theme Design With Impact, attempts to draw focus towards the importance of creating a sustainable future through activities and presentations in the realm of architecture, product design, interior design, and multimedia. “Design With Impact includes a number of short design stories on sustainability. We have engaged with regional and international designers and architects, asking them to showcase 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,” comments Kate Barry, Director of Dubai Design Week.
Various design installations of varying scales and materialities such as Transforming Space With Materials, Future of Fashion, and How Much Does Your Debris Weigh stir conversations on the role and impact of design on the environment. With exhibitions such as Matter-ials, Designing Women, Design in the Metaverse, UAE Designer Exhibition, and d3 Architecture Exhibition, the festival beckons visitors to witness design in tandem with architecture, academia, craft, and technology. “We are proud to present the eighth edition of Dubai Design Week, which is set to be – once again – a very exciting highlight of Dubai’s autumn calendar. We look forward to bringing the design and creative community together to engage, connect and be inspired by the ideas, talents and artisans presented across the fair,” comments Khadija Al Bastaki, Vice President of d3.
Split across trade shows, installations, exhibitions, workshops, talks, and a unique retail experience, the programming of Dubai Design Week is diverse and immersive. “We at Dubai Design District are deeply committed to rethinking the regular, empowering talent, and being an ever-growing ecosystem for creative thinkers. We look forward–with this edition of Dubai Design Week–to fortifying Dubai’s status as a UNESCO Creative City of Design and further growing the profile of the creative industries in our city,” elaborates Khadija Al Bastaki.
Exhibitions displayed across D3 highlight innovative work by local designers, while also drawing focus to the ‘metaverse.’ With an attempt to further engage visitors, various workshops for people of all ages and interests, provides an opportunity to learn from professionals, professors, and makers who delve in research, experimentation, and innovation. With a market at D3 offering retail pieces ranging from homeware and clothing to artisanal products, the fair also offers a chance for visitors to take a part of the experience home with them. “Dubai Design Week is an annual celebration of design and designers that we are proud to be continuously supporting,” asserts Dr Saeed Mubarak bin Kharbash, CEO of the Arts and Literature Sector at Dubai Culture.
STIR enlists a few installations and exhibitions at the fair to look out for.
Once Upon a Forest by OBMI
One of the large-scale installations at the fair that highlights the scope of good design is US-based architecture practice OBMI’s Once Upon a Forest. The pavilion is a mix of UAE’s natural mangrove heritage and the urban landscape. Moving through the canopy, one can experience and explore the safe microcosm that a natural ecosystem creates. “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,” Tareq El Zayat, Managing Director of OBMI comments.
Grounded in Hope by Grounded Design
Another immersive installation Grounded in Hope by Dubai-based interior design studio Grounded Design, attempts to highlight the need for responsible architecture that promotes peace and harmony on the planet. The natural colours and soft configuration of the fabric pavilion serves as a potent habitat for birds and animals that seek shelter and protection. The usage of repurposed fabric further strengthens the environmentally conscious architectural messaging of the installation.
KIN by Fadaa Space
Fadaa Space’s KIN, composed of natural, low-carbon lime, and bio and oyster bricks that are manufactured using discarded shellfish from restaurants, caters to the theme of the fair by urging visitors to rethink their relationship with nature. The design and architecture studio, based across Amman and New York City, recognises the power of ecological entities and the need for humans to let go of the need to occupy a central position everywhere. The installation, crafted out of discarded natural materials, hosts native plants and species.
How Much Does Your Debris Weigh? by Quartz Architects
Moving on from ecologically sound infrastructure is Saudi-Italian design studio Quartz Architects’ How Much Does Your Debris Weigh? that poses an important question. The installation, built using waste, denotes a future where waste produced by us may start seeping into spaces of habitation. The structure, looming above the visitors as they move across the pavilion, urges them to think about the amount of waste produced by the construction industry, in particular, and our daily waste practices in general.
Design in the Metaverse
An exhibition designed to build discourse around the metaverse is Design in the Metaverse. Curated by Dubai-based Metaverse development specialist MetaDecrypt, the exhibition is a space where conversations around NFTs, AR, and VR can be initiated and sustained. The impact of the metaverse is hardly shrouded in darkness today. Initiating conversations in this space with a special attention on fashion, real estate, architecture, and gaming is a fitting exposition at the contemporary design fair. Talks, masterclasses, and workshops at the design exhibition by the likes of Dewan Architects further seek to educate visitors about this new omnipresent space in our lives.
Vistagram by Apical Reform Studio
India-based Apical Reform Studio’s Vistagram enlivens the space with conversations that inch away from sustainability with a unique projection of the everyday. By magnifying, reflecting, and configuring the images of the everyday, Vistagram presents the beauty of the spaces and environment around us in a different visage, thus igniting interest.
UAE Design Exhibition
Among the various presentations and exhibitions dedicated to ecological design and the metaverse is an exhibition dedicated to the presentation of works by local designers and artists. The UAE Design Exhibition, as the name suggests, presents showcases by local creatives such as ANQA Studios, Amna Alshamsi, elNoori, Reem Jeghel, Fatima Alawadhi, and Ali Bahmani, among others. Housed in a space that resembles Emirati homes, traditional furniture pieces, seats made out of reclaimed materials and other innovative creations will help create a regional microcosm that fulfils the theme of the fair.
Dubai Design Week 2022 will remain open to the public from 8 November to 13 November 2022.
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