In quest for Emirati aesthetics

Kasa, a play on the Latin word for home, is a work in progress to get an authentic feel of homegrown design of mid-to-high-end furniture, which are being retailed under the brand name of its passionate creator, Khalid Shafar

Khalid Shafar at Kasa — his ‘showcase space’ in Ras Al Khor industrial area in Dubai. Mr Shafar turned the 2009 financial crisis into an opportunity, when he decided to quit his day job in Dubai Holding after seven years, to pursue his passion for design. Reem Mohammed / The NationalShow less

"Follow your passion" is a clichéd bit of advice that aspiring young entrepreneurs are often given, but Khalid Shafar is having none of that.

“Passion is not enough,” says Mr Shafar, the Emirati founder and chief executive of Kasa, a play on the Latinate word for house or home and the name of his “showcase space” in the Ras Al Khor industrial area in Dubai, where he and his small team design, manufacture and display his Khalid Shafar-branded range of mid- to high-end furniture.

To listen to Mr Shafar recount his journey, one understands what he means about the need for more than dreams — if you want to get going in the high-end furniture game, you need qualifications, you need experience and you need money.

There was, of course, passion too — a passion for design that kicked in while he was working in marketing for Dubai Holding after he had made the pragmatic decision to switch to a business degree after starting in interior design at American University in Dubai, taking that degree in 2002.

But that first love led to a degree in interior design in 2005, earned from the same university while working full time.

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It also ultimately led to Mr Shafar making the leap that all entrepreneurs must make at some point when he decided to quit his day job altogether, in 2009, right in the middle of the financial crisis fallout.

“I found in the financial crisis an opportunity to pursue design,” Mr Shafar says.

“Business-wise, you could see infrastructural changes [in the UAE art and design scene] and a real estate recovery.”

The path was chosen and the business was set up but there was still more learning to do, so Mr Shafar set off to the celebrated Central St Martins design school at the University of the Arts in London.

“That was more of an assurance and confirmation that I wanted to pursue this,” he says.

“I mainly chose courses that were taught by instructors in the field — professional furniture and interior designers who were teaching at the university.”

Even after completing that course there was still more training required — to become the designer he wanted to be, Mr Shafar reckoned he needed to become a master furniture maker first. So, after looking at options in the United States and in Scotland, he settled on the Centre for Fine Woodworking in Nelson, New Zealand.

“Mainly because of timing,” he says. “I could start there immediately and I didn’t want to wait.”

The programme was a 10-month hands-on professional course teaching different techniques such as wood bending and veneering, he says. “That was what I needed. But I said, ‘guys, I’m here to learn the basics but my plan is to be a designer. The making will be done by someone else but I need the knowledge.’ They embraced that and allowed me room to play with design.”

The long apprenticeship complete, Mr Shafar set up properly in Dubai in 2011.

The recognition came quickly, perhaps reflecting what Mr Shafar says was a gap in the market, a lack of a clear definition of what is truly Emirati design or even Arabian Gulf regional design identity.

A London Design Festival exhibition last September featured Mr Shafar’s designs, along with the Emirati photographer Lamya Gargash and the Beirut-born local jewellery maker Nadine Kanso, in a programme aimed at showcasing — and helping to define — modern Middle East design.

Rosa Bertoli in Wallpaper magazine, the editor of which was the exhibition's curator, wrote: "Multidisciplinary, internationally educated and highly skilled, a new breed of Middle Eastern creatives have built a thought-provoking narrative around the region's cultural identity," adding, "these creatives look within their homeland for inspiration, re-imagining local traditions and craftsmanship".

Indeed, Mr Shafar sees himself as very much part of a new wave of Emirati designers searching for authenticity.

“You have Asian, African tribal, Mexican — if we look at a piece we can say that it belongs to that category. But Middle Eastern design tends to be a broader cliché more related to North African attributes,” Mr Shafar says. “What is Emirati design? It is not yet defined, but it is part of our mission to define what is an Emirati aesthetic.”

Soon after he started Kasa, the climate for design in the Emirates was given a boost with the advent of Design Days Dubai, initiated by Cyril Zammit, the Paris-born art impresario who had landed in Abu Dhabi in 2009 with a remit from the Tourism Development and Investment Company that led to the Art Dubai fair a couple years later.

Mr Zammit was described by InDesign magazine as "the man responsible for bringing collectible design to the Middle East, and a key player in fostering Dubai's fast-emerging design scene."

Now, Mr Shafar is inspired by Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue art gallery hub, in the Al Quoz area, which has rapidly flowered in the wake of these art and design fairs and government initiatives to encourage new talent.

“I first came to this area, Ras Al Khor, when I was 10 years old and I had a vision that’s been there since,” Mr Shafar says. “We’ve never called Kasa a store or showroom, but rather a gallery. There are things there to study, to explore. It’s not a commercial space but a reference point for people interested in Emirati design. That is what is happening at the moment. Kasa is first of all about encouraging that dream for others to join in transforming this area into a design district.”

Just remember: dreams are not enough.

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