Inside Dubai Design Week 2025 — creativity, connection, and colour everywhere

Dubai: Dubai Design Week, the Middle East’s leading festival of creativity, returns to Dubai Design District (d3) from 4–9 November 2025, marking its 11th edition under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority.

After more than a decade as the region’s premier design showcase, this year’s festival shines a spotlight on the theme of ‘Community’, in harmony with the UAE’s Year of Community initiative. Through immersive exhibitions, thought-provoking installations, and dynamic talks, Dubai Design Week 2025 celebrates how design can build connection, inspire collaboration, and drive shared progress.

As Natasha Carella, Director of Dubai Design Week, tells us, the week has always been about dialogue. "This year, the focus on community is about connection, how creativity becomes a bridge between people, disciplines and cultures.”

With its largest-ever presence across d3, the festival brings together over 1,000 participants from more than 50 nationalities, spanning architecture, interiors, graphic design, technology and sustainable innovation.

Downtown design: The festival’s beating heart

At the heart of the celebration is Downtown Design, the headline fair making its return to the d3 Waterfront Terrace from November 5–9, 2025. Now in its 12th edition, it remains the region’s ultimate hub for contemporary design — a vibrant meeting place where global brands, regional studios, and design lovers come together to connect, create, and get inspired.

Casa Milano returns with the third season of Talking Walls

A key highlight at Downtown Design 2025 is the return of Casa Milano with the third season of its 'Talking Walls' Design Challenge, an initiative that blends creativity, craftsmanship and competition.

Six UAE-based design studios, KCA International, MMAC Design Associates, EMA Studios, Interspace, Cherwell, and Mimar Interiors, each reimagine a 12-square-metre space from concept to creation, interpreting a mystery word through material, form and imagination.

“We wanted to take design beyond the render and bring it to life,” says Mohammad Azhar Sajan, Founder and Director of Casa Milano and Director of Danube Hospitality. “Our 300-square-metre booth, the largest at Downtown Design, showcases six design companies, new brands, and Italian-inspired collections that celebrate innovation and craft.”

The challenge culminates in a VIP gala during Dubai Design Week, where the winning team earns an all-expenses-paid trip to Italy, a journey into the heart of design heritage and inspiration.

Exploring the theme of community

Beyond the fairgrounds, Dubai Design Week 2025 expands across d3 with its largest footprint to date. Installations, pavilions and public programmes will all explore the idea of community, how design connects people to place, and how shared creative spaces can shape collective futures.

This theme resonates across both global and regional showcases. Japanese architectural practice Nikken Sekkei, collaborating with traditional carpentry studio Sobokuya, brings a pavilion inspired by the serenity of tea rooms and the social vibrancy of café culture. Designed using sashimono joinery, crafted entirely without nails or metal and it embodies the fusion of precision, sustainability and warmth.

“We wanted to merge Dubai’s modernity with Japanese tradition,” says Prarthana Sudhindra, part of the Nikken Sekkei design team. “The structure can be dismantled and rebuilt endlessly, reflecting community as something adaptable always forming, reforming and connecting.”

Meanwhile, the National Pavilion UAE presents Pressure Cooker, curated by Azza Aboualam, an installation exploring the relationship between architecture, food production and climate resilience. First shown at the Biennale Architettura 2025 in Venice, it reimagines the greenhouse for arid environments using evaporative cooling, shading systems and modular design.

“We’re looking at how architecture can respond to climate and food security challenges,” says Aboualam. “The project is about survival, yes, but also about togetherness. Food, like design, brings people around a table.”

Regional voices and shared stories

Pakistan’s mother-son duo Saira Ahsan and Yousaf Shahbaz debut Strata, a furniture collection handcrafted with inlaid mother-of-pearl. “My mother’s interior background and my architectural training blend in this collection,” says Yousaf. “It’s our story, told through material and craft.”

From Egypt, sisters Asmaa and Mentalla Said of Doodle & The Gang collaborate with Hands Carpets on Postcard, a series of woven artworks inspired by Cairo, Dubai, Riyadh and Beirut. “It’s about nostalgia and shared memory,” they say. “Each rug captures a city that shaped us.”

UAE-based Clock and Cloud Studio, founded by Alefiyah Ustad and Reem Shawkat, unveil Loodo, a playful table made from sand biocomposite. “We grew up surrounded by desert,” says Reem. “It’s a reminder of our roots, reimagined for contemporary homes.”

Design students and faculty from the University of Sharjah and the American University of Sharjah present Nazz Wa Milh, inspired by the UAE’s salt plains. Constructed from recycled plastic bottle caps and 3D-printed modules, the installation demonstrates sustainable design thinking in education.

A city connected by design

With talks and panels featuring Marcel Wanders, Tom Dixon, Lee Broom, and David Hicks, the festival’s Forum will continue to foster dialogue between global design leaders and local creatives. Across its six days, visitors can experience everything from material experimentation to collectible art, sustainable architecture to immersive retail spaces.

As Dubai Design Week enters its second decade, its mission remains clear: to position Dubai not just as a marketplace for design, but as a hub for cultural exchange and creative innovation.