Held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, and in partnership with Dubai Design District (d3) and supported by Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, Dubai Design Week will be returning for its fourth edition from 12-17 November, 2018.

Taking place at locations across the city, this year’s programme will be the most comprehensive to date, with more than 120 companies participating and 230 events taking place, encompassing exhibitions, commissioned installations, awards and competitions, talks and workshops, tours and experiences for design enthusiasts and public visitors alike.

An accessible meeting point for the global design community, since its inauguration in 2015, Dubai Design Week has become a platform for growing and enabling the region’s design scene, attracting 60,000 visitors to the event at d3 alone throughout the 2017 edition.

Dubai Design Week will this year launch its first app, allowing visitors to create personalised schedules on the go based on preferences and interests and to be the first to get notified of must-attend launches and events.

d3’s Chief Executive Officer, Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, says: “d3 is once again thrilled to be the strategic partner and host of the fourth edition of Dubai Design Week. For 2018, we are proud to add d3’s ‘UAE Design Stories’ exhibition to the programme and highlight several projects under d3’s ‘Design for Good’ initiative which supports and promotes social change within the UAE. It’s always important for us to continue to support the growth of the design industry as a whole and it is events like this that celebrate design from across the region which truly cement Dubai, and d3, as a design destination.”

Coinciding with the event, this November will see the official opening of the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai’s first contemporary arts museum, the inaugural Fikra Graphic Design Biennial in Sharjah, the first of its kind in the region, and a range of activities staged at Alserkal Avenue, reinforcing November as the annual focal point for design and creativity in Dubai.

Key Exhibitions

The Middle East’s leading design trade fair, Downtown Design returns from 13-16 November with +175 premium design brands from the region and across the world. The fair will present a new element titled Downtown Editions, a curated showcase dedicated to limited-edition and bespoke design, capsule collections and designer collaborations. Design weeks from the region, including Amman, Beirut and Casablanca, will unite within Downtown Editions, bringing co-curated showcases of some of the Middle East’s brightest design talent. Under the theme of Livable Cities, this year’s fair will feature an indoor garden space by landscape designers desert INK, creative pop-up concepts and installations by globally renowned designers, alongside industry talks by +25 leaders of the international design scene at The Forum.

An exhibition of life changing inventions designed by graduates from the world’s best design and technology schools, Global Grad Show values innovation that transcends technology and exists independent of wealth; equality without hierarchy amongst universities, regions and designers; universal design open to all types of projects; and impact on the world at large through solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. With more than 1000 submissions, double the number received last year, Global Grad Show 2018 will showcase 150 selected projects from 100 of world’s top universities and emerging programmes.

Named after the Arabic word for ‘doors’, Abwab is an annually remodeled exhibition dedicated to design from the region. This year, Dubai Design Week will stage the fourth edition of Abwab within five dedicated pavilions designed by Architecture + Other Things, composed of natural materials including fallen twigs and timber coated in recycled newspaper pulp. Under the theme ‘Between the Lines’, commissioned designers from five communities, Amman, Beirut, Dubai, Eastern Provinces of KSA, together with Pavilion Partner Ithra, and Kuwait City will produce design experiences for cultural exchange.