Community at heart of Dubai Design Week installations, through teahouses, greenhouses and courtyards

Dubai Design Week typically avoids set themes, preferring instead to let common threads between installations emerge organically. This year, one connection stands out in particular. Many of the installations have been conceived as communal spaces.

Running at Dubai Design District until November 9, the annual platform is a staple in the city's cultural calendar and significant across the wider region as one of the leading events of its kind. It gives emerging and established designers from across the world a platform to showcase works born from hyper-local inspirations to those that spark cross-cultural conversations.

“Instead of themes, which we tend to stay away from, we had a very principled approach in the way we brought content together, making sure it remains human-centred,” says Natasha Carella, director of Dubai Design Week. “There are over 200 nationalities visiting, and we have more than 1,000 architects, designers and creative practitioners from over 50 countries. We’ve tried to keep the participants and their stories at the heart of the event, and really representative of what Dubai is.”

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This year, many of the installations are reimagining communal spaces from different cultures, from the Arabian majlis to the Japanese teahouse. It is, perhaps, a subtle nod to the UAE marking the Year of Community.

The victors of the event’s two competitions are strong examples of this communal bend. The winner of the Abwab initiative, Stories of the Isle and the Inlet, spotlights Nabih Saleh, a small island in Bahrain where the wetlands of Tubli Bay converge with the urban fabric of surrounding industrial zones.

The installation, conceived by Maryam Aljomairi and Latifa Alkhayat, founders of design platform Maraj, comprises layered mesh textiles that are draped over a steel structure, creating a prismatic volume that is open at both ends. One side depicts the mangroves, flora and fauna of the island, while the other references the dredging, pollution and other environmental hazards threatening its biodiversity. Monumental in scale, the installation offers a place of refuge for passers-by, with oversized cushioned seats and the mesh covering that filters sunlight.

The winner of the Urban Commissions competition, meanwhile, reinterprets the housh – the courtyard at the heart of traditional Emirati architecture. The installation, titled When does a threshold become a courtyard?, was developed by Some Kind of Practice, a UAE-based studio founded in 2022 by architects Omar Darwish and Abdulla Abbas.

The installation brings together building materials from several variations of the housh. Its walls are made of arish palm fronds, in keeping with the courtyards found along the coast. Stacked breeze blocks reference the stone walls of the mountains, while the roof merges arish with corrugated steel – echoing the pragmatic substitutions families made as their resources increased.

When does a threshold become a courtyard? is also conceived as a gathering space, which will be underscored by programming that will bring people to the installation throughout Dubai Design Week.

Several more works propose new concepts of gathering spaces. Sometimes these appear in unexpected ways. For instance, Pressure Cooker, the National Pavilion UAE’s exhibition at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, rethinks the idea of a greenhouse.

Curated by Azza Aboualam, the installation envisions modular greenhouses designed to adapt to different climates and cultivated crops. A table and chairs are set in the centre, providing a gathering space in an otherwise open, minimal structure, made vibrant through vegetation such as mint shrubs.

Other installations reinterpret traditional typologies. Conceived by Boo Design Studio and interdisciplinary artist Maryam AlHomaid, #Majlis is shaped like a hashtag – a universal symbol of digital connectivity – and is composed of recycled glass. Its planes are etched with the Arabic phrase Asfarat wa Anwarat, meaning “arrived with radiance and light”. The script filters sunlight and casts patterned shadows into the space.

The Japanese teahouse is also reimagined. While teahouses have been a recurring component at Dubai Design Week for the last few years, this year’s iteration is perhaps the largest and most ambitious yet. Chatai brings together various facets of Japanese traditions, from the architecture of the Tokyo Skytree and the ikebana art of flower arrangement to woodblock printing and manga.

Chatai is presented by Nikken Sekkei, one of Japan's leading multidisciplinary design firms. The structure itself was crafted by Sobokuya, embodying centuries-old Japanese woodworking traditions. The project also brings together a number of collaborators, including Panasonic, which provided ambient lighting; Hiroshima Tatamiya, which supplied tatami straw mats used as floor coverings; and UAE-based interdisciplinary studio Abjad Design.

At the core of the installation is a tea ceremony, where visitors are invited to sit and enjoy authentic matcha. The installation’s title, Chatai, merges cha, meaning tea, and yatai, a food stall, symbolising the convergence of Japan’s tea ceremony tradition with contemporary social culture.

“It's a place where you can sit and have tea, but you can also interact like in food stalls,” says Fadi Jabri, chief executive of Nikken Sekkei Dubai.

Craft-focused showcases also feature prominently this year. These include an exhibition by Al Jalila Cultural Centre for Children that presents clay sculptures produced by children as young as five. The works are delightfully unexpected, featuring imaginary beings and animals with exaggerated features.

There are also returning names, such as Abdalla AlMulla, winner of the 2023 Abwab initiative.

The architect and founder of Mula Design Studio partnered with Jaeger-LeCoultre to celebrate its Reverso line.

AlMulla’s sculptural installation is composed of woodblocks arranged according to the golden ratio, the mathematical concept that also inspired the luxury watchmaker's original Reverso design. The wood blocks have also been varnished in a specific gradient to aesthetically reflect lunar cycles.

“As an architect, the golden ratio is vital and we keep it within our practice when we design and draw,” AlMulla says. “When it came to this artistic collaboration, I wanted to create something that emphasises the idea of the proportions – something that is complex in its look, but simple in translation of the golden ratio.”

Dubai Design Week is running at Dubai Design District until November 9