Dubai Design Week Celebrates Creativity with a High-Calibre Programme

Established in 2015, Dubai Design Week is Middle East’s most important design event. It is one of the most comprehensive and accessible celebrations of design and creativity to ever be staged in the region. The third edition of the event has commenced on the 13th and is expected to conclude on the 18th of this month. The event counts with more than 200 activities staged across the city, and today, COVETED will talk a bit about some of them. The six-day event gathers designers, architects, thought-leaders and creatives who had the opportunity to experience a high-calibre design programme.

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The prestigious event is held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, and in partnership with Dubai Design District (d3) and supported by Dubai Culture & Arts Authority. Dubai Design Week has truly established a new benchmark for the city’s reputation as a vibrant and diverse platform.

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Dubai Design Week’s programme consists of a series of shows and installations, including Downton Design, Global Grad Show, exhibitions at d3, live events, talks and seminars, and much more. These features open up a wide range of opportunities for industry professionals and design enthusiasts to learn, be inspired, network, do business and celebrate the constructive impact and potential of design.

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First and foremost, Downtown Design is the commercial heart of Dubai Design Week and the region’s leading design trade show held at the new d3 waterfront event space. The event has double its size this year by exhibiting more than 150 contemporary design brands from twenty-five countries. In addition, the show featured seventy new high-end international and regional brands, and eight emerging design brands from the UAE region also had the opportunity to showcase their work for the first time at the event.

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Downtown Design – Baccarat

Considered to be the “Oscars” of graduate design and technology, Global Grad Show is the world’s largest and most diverse meeting of design and innovation graduates. The show displays around 200 projects in an effort to demonstrate the progressive thinking of the future of design, science and innovation. The show saw the collaboration of the 90 of the most elite universities, including The Royal College of Art (London), Stanford University (California) and RMIT Melbourne, alongside schools from emerging design centres, such as Pearl Academy (New Delhi) and Makerere University (Kampala).

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Abwab designed by Dubai-based Fahed + Architects

d3 is hosting a series of exhibitions, commissioned installations and indoor pop-ups, like Abwab, Iconic City, GraphicsRCA: 50 Years and Beyond, and Once Upon DESIGN: New Routes for Arabian Heritage, just to name a few. The first one celebrates the regional talent. It features forty-five designs selected through a process coined as “design dominos”, meaning that creatives have to nominate another designer upon submission. The exhibition was designed by Dubai-based Fahed + Architects.

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Iconic City

This year’s exhibition of the annual spotlight Iconic City is the “Loading … Casa” curated by Salma Lahlou, who has commissioned new works from a sound artist, graphic designer, photographer and interior architect so as to “portray the city she lives and breathes: Casablanca”, providing a unique scene of the region’s design culture and atmosphere. The third one is another highlight which brings insight into some of the best graphic design concepts created over the last half-century. Lastly, Once upon DESIGN is a curated collection of contemporary product and furniture design from the UAE and the region, commissioned by Design Space 1971 (Sharjah) and curated by Noor Aldabbagh.

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In addition, the Talks programme is led by Sir David Adjaye, one of the world’s most influential architects, and visitors also have the occasion to listen to global design figures, such as the PepsiCo Chief Design Officer, Mauro Porcini, and the inventor of the Swatch Watch, Elmar Mock.

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Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation Seminar

“By engaging and showcasing design talent in Dubai, from across the region and around the world, Dubai Design Week’s activity is carefully balanced to support and stimulate Dubai’s design economy and to engage the Design Week’s diverse audience.”