Design Ras Al Khor (DRAK), a collective led by UAE-based designers Khalid Shafar, Khulood Thani and Nadine Kanso, with a mission to promote the Ras Al Khor industrial area, has announced the theme for its upcoming edition during Dubai Design Week 2017.
Design Ras Al Khor (DRAK), a collective led by UAE-based designers Khalid Shafar, Khulood Thani and Nadine Kanso, with a mission to promote the Ras Al Khor industrial area, has announced the theme for its upcoming edition during Dubai Design Week 2017.
‘Industry to Luxury’ will focus on industrial and mass-produced materials related to the Ras Al Khor area that can be recreated for luxury use.
Designers will be selected by the collective to undergo the three disciplines of the project: design research, innovation, and material exploration.
Khalid Shafar, one of the founders of DRAK, said: “I think the definition [of luxury] had changed globally, not only in the region. Luxury products are not only made using ‘luxurious’ materials. They are products that facilitate a luxury-lifestyle and made for luxury use regardless of the materials they are made of.”
DRAK aims to be a design movement that encourages design research, innovation and material exploration. This will be its third initiative since its launch during the inaugural Dubai Design Week in 2015, which used the industrial area of Ras Al Khor as its predominant driving theme.
Last year’s theme, ‘Celebrating Wood’, encouraged designers from various fields of design to experiment and innovate using one of the world’s most used materials. Featured designers were David Trubridge, one of New Zealand’s most prominent designers and French designer Pierre Charrie, alongside regional talent: Hind Bin Demaithan (interactive design); Hala Kaiksow (textile design), Lina Younes (film) and Tulip Hazbar (graphic design).
“Compared to the last edition, we expect more products this year than installations and more personal objects than public works. Material exploration and innovation are key to the outcomes and should reflect a strong design research. We are open for proposals and our selected designers will have the sky as a limit,” added Khalid.