Dubai has rapidly established itself a hub of arts and culture in the region and the 7th edition of Dubai Design Week, which opened recently, is a testament to that vision. Dubai Design Week, remains one of the region’s most important creative festivals in the Middle East. Opened on November 8 and running until 13, it will offer as many as 260 free-to-attend events and activities for visitors and design aficionados at Dubai Design District waterfront and around the city.
What sets this year’s event apart is the sheer number of participants spanning the globe. There are 430 UAE-based designer that will participate in this year’s event. There will be something for everyone at Dubai Design Week. Indeed there are several returning regional and international brands at the event.
There will an immersive multi-media exhibition, the 2040: d3 Architecture Exhibition, which will features five architectural companies that will showcase their vision of how Dubai might look like in two decades from now for a futuristic look at the city.
Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, said: “This seventh edition of Dubai Design Week, will see the design industry’s most influential creatives from around the world converge in our city for the region’s most important creative festival. Not only has the design fair become a key element in the region’s cultural and creative industries agenda, but its rich programme also showcases and engages both the industry and the wider public in a fun, thought-provoking, and accessible way. Dubai Design Week goes beyond presenting aesthetic and practical designs, but also design solutions to complex global challenges, with the potential to enhance our day to day lives and even our future. We are proud of the growth of this incredible platform over the years and invite everyone to immerse themselves in all that this design week has to offer.”
Naturally, there will be installations at the event as well. Throughout the festival’s main hub there will be as many as 15 installations and public interventions in the open-air setting, enabling visitors and design lovers to enjoy this year’s Urban Commissions, an annually themed Dubai Design Week initiative supported by A.R.M. Holding.
For the 7th edition, it has been awarded to Beirut-based architecture and research firm, Bits to Atoms. They will showcase an interactive urban intervention titled ‘Yowalah’, a modular 3D printed public space installation, which aims to reinstate social relations and heighten happiness for users.
This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg -- there’s plenty to discover at the Dubai Design Week. Watch this space for more updates.
