Stories of the Isle and the Inlet: weaving Bahraini ecology

Through texture, pattern, and memory, the Stories of the Isle and the Inlet installation in Dubai reminds us that design can preserve what time seeks to erase — one stitch at a time.

ABWAB installation by Maraj at Dubai Design Week 2025 - Courtesy of Dubai Design Week.

ABWAB installation: Stories of the Isle and the Inlet by Maraj at Dubai Design Week 2025.

Design. Stories of the Isle and the Inlet unfolds as a mesmerising encounter between storytelling, craft, and ecology at Dubai Design Week 2025. Presented by Bahrain-based architecture and design platform Maraj, the installation delicately interlaces embroidered textiles with tales of a vanishing landscape — the small island of Nabih Saleh in Bahrain. Through intricate craftsmanship and poetic reflection, it speaks of the island’s fragile ecosystem and fading cultural memory, drawing visitors into a world where every thread tells a story.

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The inlet, located northeast of Bahrain between Tubli’s wetlands and Sitra’s industrial zone, becomes both muse and metaphor. By combining ornament and oral history, Stories of the Isle and the Inlet transforms spatial memory into a tactile narrative — one that celebrates the connection between land, water, and community. Within the Dubai Design District, this narrative takes the shape of a textile enclosure, shimmering with embroidered depictions of native flora, fauna, and the surrounding waters of Tubli Bay.

Crafted from layered mesh textiles inspired by thob al nashil — traditional Bahraini women’s garments — the installation embraces the artistry of local embroiderers and tailors. “It builds upon conventional architectural notions of rhythm, composition, and proportion through an ornamental language inspired by the flora and fauna of the water body and land,” explain Maraj co-founders Latifa Alkhayat and Maryam Aljomairi. Their words echo through every stitch, inviting viewers to read the landscape as both architecture and archive.

Stories of the Isle and the Inlet won the Abwab programme — meaning “door” in Arabic — which celebrates creativity from the MENASA region – the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. This year’s edition invited designers to reinterpret cultural heritage through materiality, ornament, and storytelling — opening new “doors” to regional design dialogue.

Maraj’s practice, based between Bahrain and the United States, continues to explore design as a vessel for storytelling. “We draw from stories, evolving them into materialised objects, spaces and landscapes,” they say.