Asserting Dubai’s position as a global hub for innovation and meeting point for design, Dubai Design Week will bring together some of the world’s top postgraduate design students for a first-of-its-kind ‘global degree show’ that offers an insight into the future of design.
Asserting Dubai’s position as a global hub for innovation and meeting point for design, Dubai Design Week will bring together some of the world’s top postgraduate design students for a first-of-its-kind ‘global degree show’ that offers an insight into the future of design.
Working in partnership with the Royal College of Art, ten world-leading design universities have selected student projects that fall under the theme of innovation, covering a wide range of sectors, from health to industry.
Global Grad Show’s curator, Brendan McGetrick, outlines what’s in-store from the designers of tomorrow at Dubai Design Week’s Global Grad Show.
“Global Grad Show is an exhibition of groundbreaking projects from the world’s leading design schools. The concept is to bring together, in a single space, highlights from the degree shows of design programs from around the world”, he says.
Participating universities include; Royal College of Art, ECAL, TU Eindhoven, MIT, Pratt, Keio University, KAIST, National University of Singapore, Tsinghua University and Hong Kong Polytech.
Brendan adds: “Ordinarily a person would have to visit each school's final exhibition individually enjoy the same experience. By bringing them all together, we're able to provide an overview of what the world’s emerging designers are working on and a first glimpse at the ideas and tools that will shape the future."
With the focus on innovation, the Global Grad Show considers the role that technology will play in the designs of the future.
“Technology is an essential part of design. In many ways, the two are inseparable. One of the interesting things about student (as opposed to professional) design work is the more experimental and critical position students take toward technology,” Brendan says.
“Some fully embrace it and use their projects to push technology beyond the obvious applications. Others use their designs to counteract the effects of technology. What I find really exciting about this show is that it's not only a survey of the work being done in some of the world's best design programs, it's also an overview of the technologies that affect our lives, whether we are aware of them or not.”
“I think of many of the projects featured in Global Grad Show as canaries in the coal mine. They are works that foresee technological and social changes and respond by enhancing, altering, or counteracting their possible effects.”
The Global Grad Show will take place in Building 6, Dubai Design District from 26 - 31 October. Open to public from 9am - 10pm.