Translated as ‘doors’ in Arabic, Abwab is an exhibition, architectural installation and a highlight of Dubai Design Week. It's the only initiative of its kind to offer a platform for design talent from across the Middle East.

Acting as a snapshot of design activity in the region, Abwab is re-modelled annually, responding to new blends of designers and an evolving creative landscape.

For the fourth edition, located at the centre of Dubai Design District (d3), Abwab hosted a collection of design experiences drawn from five communities in the Middle East; Amman, Beirut, Dubai (supported by Tashkeel), Eastern Provinces of Saudi Arabia (supported by Ithra) and Kuwait City. Two designers were invited from each place to collaborate and produce works situated in dedicated pavilions related to the theme: ‘Between the Lines’. These lines are physical and metaphorical, lines of territory, topography, the implied, and those in drawings or text.

Visitors experienced storytelling as an instrument to reveal and conceal a communities’ record by navigating through five pavilions hosting regional exhibits. The 2018 Abwab pavilions were designed by Architecture + Other Things, made by Research & Development. The twigs were offered by Bee’ah, and newspaper pulp provided by The National.