Dubai Design Week ready for epic return

Sunday 09 October 2016

Dubai - MENA Herald: Held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice Chairman, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority in partnership with Dubai Design District (d3) and supported by Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, Dubai Design Week is set to enthral the city once more, underlining the importance of Dubai as the region’s capital of design.

The second edition of Dubai Design Week will take place across the city with over 550 designers participating in a six-day celebration of ground-breaking design and ideas, free for all to attend. Key facts include:

Dubai Design Week doubles in size with over 150 events across the city
Downtown Design, establishes itself is the only trade show in the Middle East for professionals to discover original, high quality design from across the world and doubles its registrations
Global Grad Show, the world’s largest graduate degree show trebles in size with 145 projects from 50 universities worldwide, including 9 from the region
Abwab explores the human senses with design pavilions from six regional countries
Cairo takes centre stage as this design week’s featured ‘Iconic City’
d3 remains pivotal location as the event’s commercial design hub and an ‘open museum’ of design
Dubai Design Week is sponsored by Audi, Huawei and Swarovski.

Dubai Design Week is an advocate for the design community to grow, develop, thrive and succeed as it provides a stage for designers and design programmes from the local and international communities. The annual event embraces the vast potential of designers and their works and presents it to the audience to discover and engage in diversity and richness through exhibitions, installations, talk and workshops, and satellite events.

d3’s Chief Operating Officer, Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, says: “d3, as a destination dedicated to design, is a proud partner of Dubai Design Week. Created to promote fresh new talent whilst celebrating established designers, we have worked together to invite everyone to experience something totally unique, positioning Dubai as an evolving global design hub.”

Rawan Kashkoush, Head of Programming said: “With over 550 designers from around the world gathering in Dubai, Dubai Design Week is set to be a dynamic and diverse six days. Dubai, as an international hub and where creativity flourishes within the mix of its rich heritage and exponential rise as a modern city, serves as a perfect backdrop for the event.”

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

SATELLITE DESIGN EVENTS ACROSS THE CITY
More than 150 events over six days in d3 and across the city

Local retailers, design brands, galleries, universities and institutions will all independently stage events, exhibitions or installations throughout Dubai to invite visitors to discover design by exploring new neighbourhoods and reconnecting with the more familiar. Uncover the creative heart of industrial Dubai through DRAK at Ras-Al-Khor; watch artisans at work and push the door to open studios in d3; wander through Alserkal Avenue and Al Quoz stopping off for chocolate tours, gemology seminars, machine building and more; and, shop cutting-edge design in Jumeriah’s concept stores.

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DOWNTOWN DESIGN
A design trade fair of discovery

The commercial centrepiece of the fair, Downtown Design is curated to ensure that the experience brings together a collection of relevant exhibitors in the market. This year sees Downtown Design with 100 brands participating from 28 countries presenting top-quality, original products from furniture and fabrics to lighting, bathrooms and kitchens. The show features a dedicated Italian Luxury Interiors pavilion presented by the Italian Trade Agency and has also partnered with six international Design Weeks (Addis Ababa, Barcelona, Beirut, Reykjavik, and Taipei) bringing together an eclectic mix of indigenous materials, skills, industrial techniques and craftsmanship to highlight each country’s individual cultural context.

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GLOBAL GRAD SHOW
50 universities from 30 countries around the world present the next generation of innovation

Global Grad Show, the exhibition of innovation, inventions and technology from students across the world, returns to Dubai Design Week as the largest international gathering of design graduates ever with 145 projects showcasing innovation, inventions and technology from 50 leading universities in 30 countries. Following in the footsteps of famed student inventions, such as the electron microscope from the University of Toronto, the television from the University of Berlin, and Google from Stanford, Global Grad Show will showcase thought-provoking projects that will create our future by the world’s next generation of design innovators. Curated by Brendan McGetrick, Global Grad Show highlights designs that Empower, Sustain and Connect.

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ABWAB
An exhibition dedicated to exploring the design narrative of countries within the MENASA (Middle East, North Africa and South Asia) region

Abwab, meaning doors in Arabic, literally presents a gateway for six countries – Algeria, Bahrain, India, Iraq, Palestine and UAE – to showcase a range of special commissions revolving around the theme ‘The Human Senses’. Six purpose-built pavilions, by newly-formed UAE-based architects a hypothetical office, will be integrated into the walkways of d3, taking visitors on a design journey across the region.

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ICONIC CITY: CAIRO NOW! CITY INCOMPLETE
A look at the city’s various stages of completion through design

Dubai Design Week has selected Cairo as the focus of this year’s Iconic City exhibition, a series of annual exhibitions launched in 2015 that explores the culture and design scene of individual cities within the Middle East. Cairo Now! A City Incomplete captures for the first time under one roof the Egyptian capital’s current design landscape and celebrates innovation and emerging talent in the fields of product, furniture, graphic and typeface design as well as architecture. Curated by Cairo-based architect, independent researcher and writer Mohamed Elshahed, over 65 Egyptian architects, designers, entrepreneurs and graphic artists will contribute to a presentation, inspired by the city’s infamous red brick housing stock that appears in varying stages of completion across the capital.

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INSTALLATIONS
Challenging convention and exploring innovation

Visually engaging with its unconventional and creative take on Dubai’s diversity, Dubai Design Week’s high-impact sculptural, architectural and experiential public installations have been created by a handpicked selection of renowned international and local designers, artists and architects and will be positioned at strategic locations around the city, including the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa.

Featuring: EMO_DCI by Maja Kozel, Teun Verbeek and Juliette Wermenbol, supported by Dutch Creative Industry (DCI), d3 • hexalite by Zeinab Al Hashemi, presented by Swarovski, d3 • Left Impression by Latifa Saeed and Talin Hazbar, commissioned by Tashkeel, d3 • Mapping the Burj DCI by Studio Mr. White, Burj Khalifa • Ascension DCI by Yusuke Murakami + Tangent, Burj Khalifa • Takki W Hakki by Think Tank Co, supported by 1971 – Design Space, Rove Hotel • Through the Lens designed by Amer Aldour, Anjali Srinivasan, Emanuela Corti and Ivan Parati from Caravan, and Bahar Al Bahar, supported by Galeries Lafayette, Galeries Lafayette

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TALKS AND WORKSHOPS
Discussions and educational events about design in Dubai and beyond

Dubai Design Week will not only turn the city into a week-long showcase of ground-breaking design from the Middle East and beyond, but will also be underpinned by an impressive roster of over 30 lectures, workshops, keynotes and panel discussions are aimed at a range of visitors from seasoned design professionals and students, to design aficionados and children.
Held at d3, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, architect of the UAE' National Pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020, kicks off the programme delivering design week’s opening keynote; professor Yasser Elsheshtawy, curator of the UAE’s pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale, hosts a Curating Architecture Masterclass; and, Autodesk Remake and Fusion 360 host two workshops to demonstrate how the latest 3D printing software can help designers re-create or improve existing products.
Also for the first time in the region, The Royal College of Art, the world’s leading Art and Design University, will host a series of three design workshops, subsidized by Dubai Design Week in partnership with d3.

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FAMILY WEEKEND AT d3 (28-29 October)

On the weekend of 28–29 October, there will be activities abound for families and friends at d3. Alongside Dubai Design Week’s exhibitions and installations will be a two-day pop-up design and food market courtesy of community-led food and craft initiative Ripe Market, live stage performances and children’s workshops including doll-making making workshops led by Dubai-based textile artist Vinny .

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