Visitors will find Dubai Design District alive with events throughout the week when showrooms, architect studios and interiors consultants throw open their doors, host lectures, teach essential skills and launch new collections.
Visitors will find Dubai Design District alive with events throughout the week when showrooms, architect studios and interiors consultants throw open their doors, host lectures, teach essential skills and unveil new products.
Launches, exhibitions and installations
Finasi will open its showroom to present a range of new collections including Molteni&C, Colombini Casa, Gufram, Gandia Blasco, Varaschin, Artemide and Skema, and Armani/Casa monobrand showroom for the first time. It’s a busy week for Superstudio displaying accessories and select furniture pieces by British designer Tom Dixon, inviting children to give Thomas Heatherwick’s Magis Spun chairs a whirl and announcing the winner of its Moooi carpet competition. Haworth hosts the grand opening of its Middle East showroom and presents the Fern task chair, and NAKKASH Gallery reinvents luxury outdoor living with an innovative, open-air installation featuring designs by DEDON. Mid Century Modern Lines Studio (MCML) harks back to original design from the Fifties, whilst the Artemide Showroom celebrates the history of contemporary design with pieces by Norman Foster, Naoto Fukasawa, Jean Nouvel and many more. Super Future Design teams up with Moroso with an ephemeral botanical installation JUNGLEMANIA inspired by Africa with renowned designers including Tord Boontje, Patricia Urquiola and Sebastian Herkner.
Regional culture and creative talent is also promoted across the city. Architects SSH hosts its first ever Open Office event to unveil its expansion plans and ambitions to shape the built environment and infrastructure of the modern Middle East. MONTROI Studio shows creative interpretations of nomadism through the eyes of different artists, and haute-interior design studio Etqaan hosts The Craft Journey, a series of talks from established designers and hands-on workshops with skilled artisans schooled in authentic Arabian crafts. Nadine Kanso from Bil Arabi celebrates a decade in the jewelry business with TenTations showcasing 10 pieces for 10 years. Social enterprise FBMI opens its new carpet showroom with the launch of Artists for Change, a programme inviting artists to donate artworks which are then woven into hand-knotted carpets into Afghanistan. FBMI aims to raise awareness of the plight of disadvantaged artisans as well as promote their talent and capabilities: the artworks provide employment to the artisans but a range of social benefits as provided by the organization.
Practical skills
Local design firm Tinkah’s three-day Lettering Workshop explores Dubai’s typography, Cecelia Setterdahl demonstrates how she turns paintings into products at Canvas Carpets Cushions, and The Gracious F examines colour psychology and harmonising objects in a natural environment in a series of Interior Objectsworkshops.
MMAC Associates teams up with international lighting specialists Zumtobel Group to host a Façade workshopexploringexterior lighting techniques, and Play with Brilliance, an introductory workshop on lighting solutions within the hospitality and retail sectors that shows which lights work best with marble, wood and fabrics. MMAC also partners with 360 decoro for a talk entitled Fake or Real on duplicating natural materials.
Pallavi Dean and Mirage discuss environmentally friendly porcelain and stoneware used on the recent Mirage Project Point, and Wilson Fabrics hosts a presentation on the latest trends in drapery and blinds to coincide with the launch of its new showroom.
Business of Design skills
Pallavi Dean hosts Powerhouse Public Speaking for Design Gurus, demonstrating how to effectively present, pitch and promote design ideas, andEight Inc. will share case studies at Design Human Experience, closing with a Q&A session.
Sharabassy Built Environment Studio runs a certified Creativity EnhancementWorkshop which shows how creative disciplines like architecture and music, and interior design and virtual reality can work in harmony; and Serviceplan hosts Digital Retail: Experience the Future of the Shop Floor, a talk on revolutionizing retail.