Dubai Design Week

Ten years is always a good time to see how far we’ve come. The tenth edition of Dubai Design Week  runs 5-10 November in d3, and this year’s festival will apparently reflect on a decade of design and its influence on the UAE and GCC’s expanding interior design and furniture market, now estimated to be worth $26 billion in total. Fuelled by rapid urbanisation, a strong real estate market, diversification of the economy and evolving tastes among residents and businesses, DDW has matured to the point where it can now stand unapologetically alongside better established design festivals.

Much of that is down to institutional and government focus on design as a commercial imperative, a differentiator, and a key element in Dubai’s image of itself and the projection of that into the wider world; but Dubai Design Week has certainly been instrumental in creating the narrative over the past decade. Here are the key elements for this year:

Downtown Design 6-9 November The anchor event of Dubai Design Week will take place on the d3 Waterfront Terrace. The region’s leading fair for contemporary interior design and fitout-relevant solutions is complemented by talks, keynotes and masterclasses at The Forum plus pop-up concepts, installations and networking events. It’s still primarily a B2B fair, but it is full of ideas and trends that make the visit worthwhile for those outside the interiors business. Opening hours: 12am-8pm (but note that 6 November is an invite-only day)

Editions 6-9 November New for this year is the region’s first limited-edition art and design fair, with more than 50 galleries, design studios and collectives exhibiting design, photography, prints, ceramics and works on paper. The pitch is that “Editions paves an alternative route to art and design collecting”. Opening hours: 12am-8pm

Urban Commissions DDW’s annual design competition this year invited designers and architects to propose innovative community furniture that took the idea of ‘the table’ beyond its basic form. It was won by Altqadum, a research-based design studio from Oman that specialises in architecture, interior and objects design. Taking inspiration from the musical culture of the Gulf, where communities traditionally gather around and accompany musicians, Altqadum’s TukTuKDum is an innovative table that encourages interaction, inviting audiences to become performers and even an integral part of the table itself.

Abwab Abwab (‘doors’ in Arabic) is a programme that supports designers from the SWANA region by commissioning installations or pavilions each year reflecting relevant global and regional contexts. Since its inception in 2015, over 180 designers have participated in Abwab; for 2024, practitioners were invited to propose designs with a focus on vernacular architecture and how community-centric architectural methods can intersect with new environments.

Installations DDW visitors will find more 30 projects that explore ancient technologies, modern innovations and materiality. Highlights include the Dubai-based architectural and interior design studio Bone with a pavilion made entirely from pre-fabricated earth blocks, a collaboration with Spanish rammed earth specialists Fetdeterra; a traditional Japanese tea-house made from 3D-printed waste sawdust, a creation of the Japanese architectural studio Mitsubishi Jisho Design; and an AI-infused ‘second skin’ fabric that responds to the body’s state of being, shown by the tech-driven multidisciplinary practice DEOND (founded by Ross Lovegrove and Ila Colombo). Other installations promise various organic and upcycled materials including banana fibre, soybean wax, henna, Himalayan salt, terracotta and scrap metal.

Exhibitions and activations Curated exhibitions include the annual UAE Designer Exhibition, now in its fifth edition. Supported by Dubai Culture and curated by Omar Al Gurg, this is an effective showcase of work by emerging UAE-based designers. Other craft/design retail opportunities include an Art Jameel shop, 421’s Dukkan421 shop, and Monocle’s shop and café takeover of FRAME in d3.

Talks, workshops and masterclasses DDW’s workshops programme is apparently “designed to inspire and elevate skills across design disciplines, catering to professionals and aspiring creatives of all ages, interests and experience levels”. It’s housed in a pop-up Maker Space in d3 and there’s usually something for anyone – the workshops do tend to fill up quickly, not least because most are free. DIDI (which is based in d3) has a collection of workshops and student-led tours, all free – sign up here. The talks programme tends to be centred on Downtown Design and takes place in The Forum, the amphitheatre-style space within Downtown Design.

Marketplace 9-10 November (below) A weekend outdoor “retail experience” where “visitors can discover the very best of the region’s designers, artisans and homegrown small businesses offering quality and original products”. It’s “consciously curated”, so in theory there should be no dross.