Emboldened by its acclaimed inaugural edition, UAE’s annual celebration of creative spirit returns with a bigger, bolder agenda — over 150 events, in fact. With so much going on, choosing what to see and do can be overwhelming. Here, tabloid!’s design writer Pratyush Sarup (catch his column bi-monthly on Saturdays) gives his pick of this year’s do-not-miss DDW events.
THE HEXALITE
A detail shot of the Hexalite installation reveals Swarovski crystals as design solutions to create a kaleidoscope effect. Photos by Zarina Fernandes/Gulf News and courtesy of Dubai Design Week
Swarovski has a legacy of investing in upcoming designers and their creative research, crafting show-stopping design moments at leading international design fairs globally. The Austrian fine crystals manufacturer collaborated with Zeinab Al Hashemi, one of the most promising names in contemporary art and design in the UAE. The result is Hexalite, this design season’s most anticipated original work.
“The installation is an exploration into my 2014 photographic series Urban Phantasmagoria that used satellite shots of Abu Dhabi and Dubai landscapes to deliver kaleidoscopic abstractions,” says Al Hashemi, who is known for her site-specific contemporary installations that draw on and reinterpret the symbols and traditions of her Emirati culture. A significant part of her practice is influenced by physics and numerology. “For the installation, I chose to concentrate on the number 33, which in numerology signifies world harmony, spiritual creation and transformative thinking.”
Set in the urban climes of Dubai Design District, the installation, a composition of 33 hexagonal structures clad in mirrored steel and crystals, coated in the multi-coloured Aurora Borealis effect, will create an infinite series of kaleidoscopic views in the fourth dimension. As the sun travels through the day, the crystal prisms and triangles, strategically positioned to refract and mirror the onlooker and their surroundings, will creative an ever-changing, shimmering mirage.
THE INSTALLATIONS
Takki W Hakki offers a contemporary interpretation of Bedouin culture.
Design takes over the city as never-seen-before works of design and art populate neighbourhoods and landmark destinations. Studio Mr. White, an art-driven, visual design company founded in Toronto, Canada, and now operating in Dubai and Beirut, will leave its mark on the world’s tallest structure with animated content especially commissioned for Dubai Design Week. Created using a projection mapping technique, the animation will light up the world’s tallest LED screen on the Burj Khalifa. The building also serves as a muse and screen for Yusuke Murakami’s animation, Ascension.
Takki W Hakki, the interactive installation designed by Jeddah based Think Tank Co, takes centre stage at the Rove Hotel on the edge of Downtown Dubai. Intended to bring people together in a unified experience of music and movement, the installation envisaged as a repurposed swing features seats shaped like camel saddles and upholstered in Sadu-print cushions. Further evoking ancient Bedouin transportation methods across the Arabian Peninsula is the soundscape. Based on an adaptation of an original Nabati love poem by Bukhoot Al Marrirecall, the music is produced by Saudi director Majid Al Essa.
Four cherry-picked regional designers transform Galeries Lafayette’s windows into works of art as they respond to this year’s selected theme, ‘Through The Lens’. Designers behind this year’s innovative designs are molten-glass artist Anjali Srinivasan, architects Bahar Al Bahar and Amer Al Dour, Emanuela Corti and Ivan Parati from Caravan.
THE PROJECTS
Abwab’s India pavilion invites you to write down a memory on a piece of paper and watch it being made into a tile.
The Arabic word for ‘door’, Abwab a portal to the creative might of countries in the MENASA region as they present the best of their country’s design in a curated format. This year’s edition sees Algeria, Bahrain, India, Iraq, Palestine and the UAE deliver on the theme of ‘The Human Senses’. Dubai-based architecture and design studio A Hypothetical Office were chosen to design six transitional pavilions as blank canvasses for the countries to personalise.
The Iconic City exhibit returns, focused on Cairo (last year was Beirut). Cairo serves as a muse to a silent creative movement that’s fast gaining ground. It’s home to young designers who, despite the lack of a marketplace or an infrastructure supporting creative industries, are turning the city’s derelict areas into new products and reviving fading traditions with a contemporary edge. Curated by Mohammad Al Shahed, ‘Cairo NOW! City Incomplete’ gathers Cairo’s current design landscape for the first time under one roof.
THE FUTURE OF DESIGN
Micro Wind Turbine is just one of the many projects on show that can change the way we live.
The second edition of Global Grad Show, the annual exhibition of groundbreaking projects from design schools around the world, features 145 projects from 50 leading universities, selected by the award-winning curator Brendan McGetrick. “Design is a tool for betterment,” says Melani Sabhaney, design director at the Dubai-based design studio Interspace. “These products offer a glimpse into the future.”
From a selection categorised under Empower, Connect and Sustain, Sabhaney shares her favourite projects:
Trenc Water Saver by Marc Garcia Jane of the Barcelona Tech (UPC) is designed to reduce water consumption through household taps. When placed at the end of the tap, it reduces the flow of water used, permitting the full intensity of flow only when the lever is pushed up. The product’s main goal is to provide a technologically simple, low cost and user-friendly way to save water.
How do you charge your smartphones and navigation devices during a trip, far away from civilisation? Designed by Nils Ferbe of the ECAL, University of Art and Design Lausanne, Micro Wind Turbine proposes a novel alternative to existing solar panels. It can operate at night and in harsh weather conditions. It features a USB port for direct charging, an integrated battery pack for storage and is compact, light and easy to assemble.
Ella Jeong, Ellie Hyejin Cho, Matthew Cadiz and Jonah Lu from the ArtCenter College of Design present Axiom, a weight-training system, it directs athletes through different types of tactile feedback, by enacting the guiding gestures of a personal trainer. Textile sensors, EMG sensors, and haptic sensors that are woven into the suit’s polyester spandex transfer data to the Axiommobile app, allowing users to receive real-time feedback and review after the workout.
THE EVENTS
Design of a decade is a retrospective of Bil Arabi’s neo-arabesque spirit.
Bil Arabi, a contemporary luxury brand, celebrates a decade of redrafting the Arab identity. To celebrate this milestone, Nadine Kanso will unveil an exhibition curated by esteemed product designer Samer Al Ameen. Set to take guests on a sequential journey through the last decade of Bil Arabi, and showcasing some of Kanso’s most significant projects over the years, the exhibition underlines the designer’s repute as a multi-disciplinary artist of social worth.
Italian purveyor of fine design and manufacturing, Moroso, is set to inspire young creative talent with a workshop and competition that will see the winner take home one of the brand’s most loved icons, the ‘Take a Line for a Walk’ armchair by Alfredo Haberli. Supported by textile firms Kvadrat and Febrik, the workshop will be held at Building 5, Dubai Design District on October 27. Showcasing creativity and material appreciation, participants will upholster a 3D printed miniature of the armchair for a jury comprising of design industry heavyweights.
At their project point in d3, Mirage hosts a new series of design talks. Aimed at design professionals, the sessions promise new advice and insights into important topics such as fire safety in facade design, protecting one’s intellectual property and creating contemporary commercial interiors in the Middle East.
The weekend of October 28–29 features family activities at d3 with a design and food market by Ripe, stage performances and children’s workshops, including doll-making workshops led by Dubai-based textile artist Vinny.
Don’t miss it
Dubai Design Week takes place from October 24-29 around Dubai with its hub of exhibitions and installations at Dubai Design District (d3). Find the full schedule at dubaidesignweek.ae
