SHARES

The 11th iteration of Dubai Design Week (4-9 November 2025) at the Dubai Design District (d3) takes community as its guiding principle, and re-positions design as a means of gathering, belonging and social exchange. 

Rather than relying on a single overarching theme or spectacle, the festival has embraced a human-centred approach: emphasising authentic regional voices, material innovation and the ways in which built form and installation can foster connection. “We try to shy away from buzzwords,” states director Natasha Carella. “Our approach is guided by … high-quality, original design; representation of the region; and how design can support our collective future.” 

Key Highlights

  • The exhibition programme features over 30 large-scale installations, each exploring how materials, craft and typologies of gathering spaces can shift in contemporary times. 

  • The winning Urban Commissions project, titled When Does a Threshold Become a Courtyard?, by UAE studio Some Kind of Practice (founded in 2022) draws on the traditional Emirati housh (courtyard) and its fluid boundaries. Built from palm-leaf arish, breeze-blocks, corrugated steel, the installation references how homes evolved with available materials and community needs. 

  • In the “Abwab” series, the winning pavilion Stories of the Isle and the Inlet by Bahraini design platform Maraj uses layered mesh textiles to tell the story of Nabih Saleh Island and the wetlands of Tubli Bay — presenting an immersive refuge for visitors featuring environmental narrative and seating. 

  • Far from gimmickry, installations convey craft, society and architecture. For example, the Japanese-inspired pavilion “Chatai” (tea + yatai) by Nikken Sekkei in collaboration with UAE studio brings together tatami mats, bespoke joinery and a tea-ceremony space that invites stillness and social interaction.

Why It Matters

In recent years, Dubai’s design ecosystem has matured significantly: from importing global brands to fostering regional creative production, material research and meaningful public-space interventions. At a moment when the UAE marks the Year of Community, the festival’s emphasis on gathering, place and material echoes broader national ambition.

Design is thus being reframed not just as product or spectacle, but as a social tool: assemblies, courtyards, greenhouses reimagined as places of belonging, exchange and collective creativity.

Looking Ahead

Visitors and professionals at the festival will find several trajectories worth watching:

  • The increasing prominence of region-specific materials (such as date-seed composites, desert sands, palm-leaf finishes) and how they shape future-facing design.

  • The evolution of public gathering typologies — from majlis to teahouse to greenhouse — through design interventions that are flexible, inclusive and climate-aware.

  • Emerging design voices from the Gulf, North Africa and South Asia finding platform and attention alongside global heavy-weights, signalling a diversified global design map.

In a city known for scale and spectacle, Dubai Design Week 2025 proposes that the greatest impact might come from spaces where people meet, share and feel at home.