Dubai Design Week is back, and it’s bigger, bolder, and more immersive than ever. From 4–9 November 2025, d3 transforms into a playground for the world’s most daring designers and visionary creatives. With immersive courtyards, experimental pavilions, and installations that blur the line between art, architecture, and lifestyle. At the heart of it all? Downtown Design, the anchor fair where furniture, lighting, and lifestyle objects double as cultural conversation starters.
This isn’t just a design fair, it’s a celebration of ideas, culture, and craftsmanship, where global names meet regional innovators to create thought-provoking moments. This year’s highlights are global in scope yet deeply rooted in place
When Does a Threshold Become a Courtyard?
The winning Urban Commissions installation asks a deceptively simple question: what makes a courtyard a shared space? UAE-based studio Some Kind of Practice reimagines the traditional housh with moving walls, open thresholds, and reflective surfaces, turning private architecture into a communal experience. This is design as narrative, inviting you to explore how culture, climate, and materiality shape our everyday spaces.
Strata: Yousef Shahbaz
Pakistani designer Yousef Shahbaz makes his Dubai debut with Strata, a collection inspired by geological layers. Sculptural surfaces, textures, and forms evoke the passage of time, reminding visitors that design can be as much about storytelling as it is about aesthetics. It’s tactile, immersive, and perfect for photography.
Designed in Saudi Pavilion
Curated by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture, this pavilion spotlights the Kingdom’s next wave of designers. Expect a mix of traditional craftsmanship and modern innovation, from ceramics and textiles to furniture that balances heritage with experimentation. It’s a must-see for anyone curious about the evolving Middle Eastern design landscape.
ARDH Collective: Sustainable Structures
This UAE-based collective explores low-carbon design with installations made from DuneCrete and DateForm. The structures are bold, sculptural, and intentionally experimental, demonstrating that eco-conscious design doesn’t have to compromise style. Walking through these pieces feels like stepping into a future where sustainability and creativity coexist seamlessly.
AJZAL’s Majlis Reimagined
AJZAL transforms the traditional majlis into a modern communal space using Sharjah stone and camel leather. The installation blends heritage and contemporary design, encouraging visitors to linger, interact, and rethink how social spaces function. It’s a tactile experience that fuses craft, culture, and conceptual innovation.
The UAE’s National Pavilion: Pressure Cooker
Pressure Cooker is an adaptive greenhouse prototype exploring architecture, food, and sustainability. Using modular systems and local soil, the installation questions how urban environments can integrate design with ecological responsibility. It’s functional, forward-thinking, and visually striking, a perfect embodiment of Dubai Design Week’s ethos.
Abwab: “In the Details”
This year’s Abwab commission, Stories of the Isle and the Inlet by Bahrain-based @maraj.works, delves into the delicate balance between ecology, heritage, and craft. Drawing from the island of Nabih Saleh, situated between Tubli’s wetlands and Sitra’s industrial edge, the installation captures the disappearing beauty of its landscape through layered embroidered textiles inspired by thob al nashil. Crafted by Bahraini artisans using locally sourced materials, it combines ornament and oral histories to tell the story of place and memory. The result is a poetic reflection on environmental preservation and cultural continuity, grounded in the theme “In the Details.”
Duette Studio: The Ephemeral Petunia Garden
Duette Studio, founded in Dubai by Fuad Afro and Raha Marmalade, explores memory, culture, and temporality through The Ephemeral Petunia Garden. The installation magnifies the fleeting life of Dubai’s winter petunia, blooming for just 90 days, as a meditation on impermanence in a city defined by constant transformation. Mirrored petals capture the play of light and movement during the day, while at night, subtle illumination softens the space, inviting quiet reflection. Produced with Blachere Illumination, the work balances visual poetry with environmental awareness, turning nature itself into both subject and medium of contemplation.
Boo Design Studio: Majlis
Boo Design Studio, led by husband-and-wife duo Amanda and Jo Bo Abbood, unveiled Majlis, an installation created in collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Maryamhomer. Reinterpreting the traditional Arab gathering space, it became a contemporary forum for dialogue, storytelling, and cultural exchange. The structure, shaped like a hashtag (#), symbolizes the dynamics of modern communication in the digital era. Constructed from recycled glass and metal, its surfaces were etched with Arabic script inspired by “Asfarat wa Anwarat”, “arrived with radiance and light”, blending craftsmanship with a reflective meditation on presence, connection, and cultural heritage.
IQOS Curious X Seletti
IQOS Curious X has teamed up with Italian design house Seletti to transform the everyday piazza into a space of sensory exploration. Known for its playful and unconventional style, Seletti brings its signature whimsy to an installation where sound, light, and digital art converge. The result is an immersive journey through architecture and innovation, an ode to curiosity and creative experimentation. Designed to spark interaction and wonder, the reimagined piazza invites visitors to pause, explore, and experience design as emotion.
Dubai Design Week 2025 isn’t just a showcase of objects, it’s a full sensory journey, merging heritage, sustainability, and innovation. These seven installations are the perfect starting point to experience the creativity, craft, and visionary thinking that makes the festival a standout on the global design calendar.
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