d3 Waterfront Terrace – Courtesy of Dubai Design Week 2025.
Design. Until November 9, Dubai Design Week 2025 turns the city into a canvas of ideas blooming under desert light. Marking its most significant edition yet, the festival gathers over 1,000 exhibitors alongside showcases, installations, workshops, and talks. Throughout the Dubai Design District, imagination flourishes — and design takes centre stage in the region’s most dynamic celebration of creativity.
- RELATED STORIES: Read more about Dubai Design Week 2025 on Archipanic.
Downtown Design
Downtown Design entrance – Courtesy of Dubai Design Week 2025.
As the anchor event of Dubai Design Week 2025, Downtown Design is the region’s leading fair for contemporary design. At the d3 Waterfront Terrace, innovation meets craftsmanship, with international brands such as Kartell, Kholer, Vitra, Roche Bobois, Stellar Works, Porada, and Desalto unveiling their latest collections. Talks, pop-up showcases, and design dialogues enrich the atmosphere, turning the fair into a hub of ideas, connections, and inspiration that ripple far beyond its waterfront venue.
Soffio Lamp + Cava coffee table by Draga & Aurel – Photo by Federica Lissoni.
Design duo Draga & Aurel stage a solo show for Collectional, while Hand Carpets joins forces with Doodle and The Gang for the playful Postcards series of hand-knotted and hand-tufted rugs. The annual Tanween programme by Tashkeel presents local innovation, while Buccellati dazzles with a pop-up designed by David/Nicolas.
Postcards series by Hand Carpets and Doodle and The Gang – Courtesy of Hand Carpets.
Regional highlights include the BEIT Collective’s objects crafted in Lebanon, the debut of ‘Strata’ by Pakistani designer Yousef Shabaz, and the Designed in Saudi pavilion, which highlights the Kingdom’s creative talent.
Editions
Dastan at Editions.
Following last year’s debut, Editions brings a curatorial twist, blurring the lines between art and collectible design, ranging from ceramics, prints, and contemporary objects. From Ila Colombo’s AI-infused practice to works by Galerie Geek Art, Wadi Finan, and Rarares Gallery. At the d3 Waterfront Terrace, Editions celebrates design’s tactile poetry and the enduring allure of the handmade.
Rethinking the Courtyard: The Urban Commission Pavilion
Urban Commission by Some Kind of Practice.
This year’s Urban Commission winner, Some Kind of Practice, presents When Does a Threshold Become a Courtyard?. The installation reinterprets the Emirati housh — a courtyard that grows organically over time, through climate, and within the community. “This courtyard is less about planned geometry and more about responding intuitively to the rhythms of communal life,” the studio explains, reframing architecture as a living dialogue.
Abwab: Stories Woven from the Gulf
ABWAB installation by Maraj.
Meaning “gate” in Arabic, Abwab is a yearly programme that champions designers from across the MENASA region — the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. At Dubai Design Week 2025, the Abwab pavilion opens fresh perspectives on regional creativity. Bahrain-based platform Maraj presents Stories of the Isle and the Inlet, an evocative installation that layers ecology and culture through intricately embroidered textiles. Each stitch captures the flora, fauna, and shimmering waters of Nabih Saleh Island, transforming the space into a tactile archive of memory, belonging, and shared heritage.
Woven Forest: An Ode to Tradition
Woven Forest by Designlab Experience.
Debuting at Dubai Design Week 2025, Designlab Experience pays tribute to regional weaving with Woven Forest. A constellation of bamboo baskets suspended above a timber platform forms a sculptural grove. As daylight filters through, patterns ripple like water — by night, light transforms the grove into a luminous crown of craft and memory.
Nature’s Poetry in Petals
Ephemeral Petunia Garden by Duette – Photo by Mohamed Hussein @d.wtrmln.
Independent creative lab Duette unveils Ephemeral Petunia Garden, a glowing field of sustainable beauty. Reimagining Dubai’s fleeting winter bloom, it celebrates resilience through reflection and light. Proof that poetry and sustainability can coexist, this serene spectacle radiates quiet joy — a gentle bloom in the desert night. Read more.
The Journey Within: Traces of Musafir
Traces of Musafir by ANA Design Consultants.
With the Traces of Musafir installation, ANA Design Consultants reflects on life as an eternal voyage. A circular, earth-like structure mirrors the unpredictability of life. Multiple paths crisscross through the space, symbolising the many decisions we make and the countless souls we intersect with. At its core rests a solitary seat, a space to pause, reflect, and simply be. Here, the musafir (passenger) may face time not as a race to be won, but as a companion to walk with. The question is not how long I will stay, but how deeply I will live.
DEOND’s Exsalted Pavilion
Exsalted Pavilion by DEOND – Photo by ©deedstudio.
DEOND — the creative partnership of Ross Lovegrove and Ila Colombo — presents Exsalted. The immersive installation plays with light, geometry, and material innovation, enveloping visitors in a meditative rice-paper landscape that transforms in response to changing light. Supported by MANE, it continues DEOND’s research on structural lightness and digital construction systems.
Interlude: A Pause for the Soul
Courtesy of Annabelle Schneider.
INTERLUDE: In Between Is Now, by Annabelle Schneider, creates a cocooned refuge within Dubai Design Week 2025. Co-presented by ArtKōrero and Therme Art, the installation offers calm amid the creative rush — a “third space” that integrates technology with tactile elements, inviting ritual, reflection, and reconnection through softness and light. The installation is designed to evoke a sense of belonging, comfort, and emotional balance.
Sand, Sustainability, and Serenity
Courtesy of Dubai Design Week.
ARDH Collective’s The Space Within showcases the power of local materials. Crafted from DuneCrete, a sustainable concrete derived from desert sand, the installation reimagines the courtyard as a tranquil retreat. Minimal yet striking, it proves that innovation can emerge directly from the earth beneath our feet.
Chatai: A Japanese Ritual of Togetherness
Chatai by Nikken Sekkei x Sobokuya.
Japanese firm Nikken Sekkei and Sobokuya unveil Chatai, a handcrafted tea space celebrating culture through design. Built using traditional sashimono joinery, the wooden structure fosters warmth, simplicity, and connection. Within this serene pavilion, visitors gather to exchange ideas — a quiet reminder that hospitality, too, is a form of design.
Isola Space: A New Design Destination
Isola Space – Photo by ©Isola Design Group.
Design platform Isola inaugurates Isola Space — a vibrant hub that blends an exhibition gallery, design store, café, workspace, and event venue. Launching during Dubai Design Week 2025, the destination debuts with the group exhibition Icons of Tomorrow, joined by two additional showcases across Dubai Design District.
Emerging Voices: UAE Designer Exhibition
Courtesy of Shaikha Al Tunaiji.
The UAE Designer Exhibition returns with renewed energy, supported by Dubai Culture. Mauhaus debuts sculptural lamps inspired by the idea of home, Shaikha Al Tunaiji’s luxury hospitality boxes reinterpret traditional cone-shaped covers made from palm fronds, and Lena Kassicieh’s ceramics bring joy to everyday rituals — a testament to the UAE’s vibrant creative ecosystem.
Dreams, Data and Design
AIM Shared Dreams – Courtesy of HYBRID Xperience Collective.
HYBRID Xperience Collective’s AIM Shared Dreams installation blends AI and emotion in an immersive showpiece. Visitors’ thoughts are translated into colour and sound, projected onto a vast megaphone-shaped structure. Inspired by childhood wonder and the geometry of a kaleidoscope, it captures the spirit of Dubai Design Week 2025 — amplifying voices through technology, imagination, and play.
A library for Creativity, Exchange, and Storytelling
Check in at Bootleg Griot, an independent public library project that highlights works by artists, collectives, and writers of African descent, celebrating creativity, cultural exchange, and accessibility.
Weekend Market: Where Community Comes Alive
On November 8–9, Dubai Design District transforms into an open-air marketplace celebrating craftsmanship and creativity. Expect local brands, handmade designs — from homeware, jewellery, fashion and lifestyle items to sustainably made goods — as well as culinary experiences, children’s activities, and live performances. A joyful close to Dubai Design Week 2025, where every stall tells a story, and every creation reflects the city’s boundless imagination.
Woven Forest by Designlab Experience at Dubai Design Week 2025.
Photos are courtesy of Dubai Design Week, unless stated.
Chatai by Nikken Selkei x Sobokuya.
Ila Colombo at Editions – Courtesy of the Artist.
Traces of Musafir by ANA Design Consultants.
Courtesy of Lena Kassicieh.
