Your complete guide to Dubai Design Week 2025
The biggest names in the game you need to watch out for this design season
What is Dubai Design Week 2025?
Dubai Design Week 2025 is all set to take place this November, and like every year, this 11th edition is also jam-packed with a thought-provoking exchange of ideas, immersive activations and appearances by some of the biggest and boldest faces in the world of design.
When is Dubai Design Week 2025?
The edition, taking place from 4 to 9 November is brought to you under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), presented in strategic partnership with Dubai Design District (d3), a member of TECOM Group PJSC, and supported by Dubai Culture.
Where is Dubai Design Week 2025?
As always, the main hub of the festival will be Dubai Design District (d3), the home of huge local, regional and global brands in the art, design and fashion space.
What designers to look out for?
The leading design festival in the region, the event aims to bring together the most creative and driven practitioners to answer questions about the future of design - how can we, as a collective, work towards a better tomorrow for all, one marked by cross-cultural exchange and the amplification of talent in the region and beyond.
The festival features a special emphasis on West and South Asia, as well as the wider Global South, while also offering a rich, multidisciplinary programme that caters to a variety of audiences. Think exhibitions, installations, workshops, panels and new commissions across the genres of architecture, interiors, furniture, product, graphic and experiential design, acting as a platform for dialogue, experimentation and progress.
The regional designers to look out for
On the regional front, visitors can look out for BEIT Collective’s objects crafted in Lebanon, the ‘Designed in Saudi’ exhibition by the Design & Architecture Commission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture, Sharjah-based 1971 Design Space’s showcase of Lina Ghalib and Nuhayr Zein, this year’s cohort of the Athath Fellowship by MAKE in Abu Dhabi and the annual Tanween programme by Tashkeel, all part of Downtown Design, the hero event of the week and the place to be for superior contemporary design.
As part of Editions, showcasing limited-edition art and design spanning prints, photography, works on paper, ceramics, contemporary design, and artist multiples, the Wadi Finan Art Gallery is bridging heritage with contemporary practice with works on paper by a selection of regional artists. Returning exhibitors include Rarares Gallery, spotlighting Dubai’s emerging artists, as well as Urbanist and Zawyeh Gallery, bringing perspectives from the Levant and Palestine.
The winning proposal of this year’s design competition, Urban Commissions, is by UAE-based design and research studio Some Kind of Practice, founded by Omar Darwish and Abdulla Abbas. Urban Commissions is a platform for architects and designers to canvas the depths of their creativity for the public eye, using their talent to enrich civic life. The theme of 2025 is the courtyard, a physical and social centre of gravity that is not only rooted deeply in the region, but present across cultures around the world.
The proposal draws on the housh or the Emirati courtyard, which unlike the formal courtyards of Egypt, Syria or Saudi Arabia, birthed from a necessity. It carries forward the practice of utilising whatever materials are available, and reimagines it for the urban world, with modern needs.
The international designers to watch
As part of Downtown Design, new participants include Roche Bobois, Stellar Works and Calico Wallpaper, Porada, Desalto as well as French designer Stéphanie Coutas, the debut of Strata by Pakistani designer Yousef Shabaz, and designer-duo Draga & Aurel, presented by Collectional Immersive concepts include a pop-up from Buccellati, conceived by designer-duo david/nicolas, the Solaire Lounge by Veuve Clicquot in collaboration with Studio Marcel Poulain, Styled Habitat presenting a concept for Nordic Homeworx, and Etereo Design Studio for Cosentino.
What else should I look out for?
For Editions, highlights include Galerie Geek Art’s first regional presentation of Japanese art, globally recognised designers david/nicholas in collaboration with Iwan Maktabi and Orient 499 with a new contemporary design collection, the global launch of Bureau of Innovation, presenting works by leading designers such as Tom Fereday, Leila Heller Gallery with prints by Keith Haring and Rooster Gallery with a new collection by Sandra Strele.
Lastly, the Abwab programme invited participants to respond to the theme 'In the Details'. As a signature element of the event, its focus is on material intelligence, precision, and cultural nuance - explored through the lens of ornamentalism, an aesthetic language of memory and symbolism that has long influenced architecture, textiles, and objects across cultures.
Visit: dubaidesignweek.ae
Deeply passionate about art, food, culture and community, Manaal loves telling extraordinary stories of ordinary people. Besides sniffing out a tale to tell, her favourite things to do include binging true crime documentaries, chasing cats on the streets and curating a good outfit.
