Dubai Design Week 2024 guide, from events to installations and new fairs

Annual cultural event brings together designers, brands and professionals for six days

Dubai Design Week will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Antonie Robertson / The National

More than 500 designers, brands and professionals from various creative industries will be taking part in this year’s Dubai Design Week.

The event will return to d3 between November 5 and 10. A landmark in the city’s cultural calendar, Dubai Design Week also holds a special significance in the wider region as one of the leading events of its kind.

There are several returning elements, including the workshops in the Maker’s Space and the weekend Marketplace, which offers unique handcrafted goods as well as foods. New additions, meanwhile, include a fair dedicated to editioned artworks, which are copies or replicas made from a master.

"We look forward to bringing together designers from across the globe to exchange ideas and demonstrate the positive impact that can be fostered through design," said Natasha Carella, director of Dubai Design Week. "Responding to the complexities of a modern world, sustainable practices and the nuances of vernacular architecture across the region and wider global south take centre stage this year, with thought-provoking programming that explores creativity in all its forms and how design can better our common future.”

Here are a few things to look forward to at the 10th Dubai Design Week.

Downtown Design

Downtown Design will be running between November 6 and 9 at the d3 Waterfront Terrace. This year’s run will reprise many of the elements that make it a core event of Dubai Design Week.

Here you’ll find the latest collections from some of the most innovative design brands in the world, as well as recent trends in interior design, furniture and lighting. Creative pop-up concepts, installations and networking events are among the highlights of the event. The Forum area, meanwhile, will be hosting talks, keynotes and masterclasses.

Editions, Dubai

A novel addition, Editions, Dubai is said to be the region’s first fair focusing on editioned artworks or pieces specifically made for reproduction, but on a limited scale, usually numbered and signed by the artist. Running between November 6 and 9, more than 50 galleries, design studios and collectives will have displays across a variety of sections. These will include contemporary design, photography, prints, ceramics and works on paper.

Urban Commissions

The annual design competition invited participants to rethink the table. The competition’s theme Tawila (Arabic for table) had contestants exploring the function of a table in novel forms.

Oman design studio Altqadum was crowned the winner. The studio specialises in architecture as well as interior and object design. It is led by Marwan Albalushi, Najd Albalushi and Abdulrahim Alkendi. Altqadum is perhaps best known for being the studio behind the Bab Al Salam Mosque in Muscat.

Their winning design TukTuKDum takes cues from the musical culture of the Gulf, reflecting how communities gather around and accompany musicians as they perform. TukTuKDum was also fashioned in a way to persuade interaction, goading its users to become performers themselves.

Abwab

Abwab (which is Arabic for doors) is a programme that aims to bolster designers from the South West Asian and North African regions. The programme commissions installations and pavilions every year. More than 180 designers have participated in the programme since it was established in 2015.

Vernacular architecture is the focus of the programme this year with practitioners asked to consider how community-centric architectural methods can be introduced to new contexts.

Installations

Dubai Design Week is renowned for the way it transforms the d3 area with large-scale installations. This year will be no different. More than 30 installations are expected to be featured in the area. The installations will explore ancient technologies, present modern solutions and rethink design on a material level.

Bone, an architectural and interior design studio in Dubai, will be presenting a pavilion made from earthblocks, while Mitsubishi Jisho Design will be returning with a teahouse. Last year, the Japanese company presented a teahouse made from recycled paper, tea, dried fruits and cork.

The company’s teahouse this year will be 3D-printed from waste sawdust. A fabric described as "second-skin" and made with AI technology will be presented by multidisciplinary practice Deond. The fabric has potential therapeutic uses. Other installations, meanwhile, will highlight a sustainability angle, making use of banana fibre, soybean wax, henna, himalayan salt, terracotta and scrap metal.

Exhibitions and activations

Emirati photographer and designer Omar Al Gurg will be curating this year’s UAE Designer Exhibition, which presents cutting-edge work by designers living in the UAE.

Supported by Dubai Culture, it is one of many curated exhibitions spearheaded by cultural and educational institutions as well as design brands. The UNHCR will highlight Made 51, a series of artisanal homeware and accessories crafted by refugees. Art Jameel Shop and the Abu Dhabi community arts space 421, meanwhile, will showcase products made by designers from the region.