A Full Guide to Dubai Design Week 2025

Dubai Design Week returns to the Dubai Design District (d3) from 4–9 November 2025 for its 11th edition, under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The 2025 programme features a dynamic lineup of commissions, exhibitions, installations, talks and live events, bringing together local and international designers and creative practitioners.

In all, over 30 major outdoor installations will transform d3 into an open-air gallery of design innovation. The festival’s multidisciplinary scope spans architecture, interiors, furniture, product, graphic and experiential design, reflecting Dubai’s role as a global meeting point for creativity. More than 1,000 acclaimed and emerging designers and brands are expected to showcase new work, emphasizing cross-cultural dialogue and sustainability across design disciplines.

Transformative Installations and Pavilions

One of the core attractions at Dubai Design Week is the array of large-scale installations that reimagine public space. For example, Dubai-based ARDH Collective presents “The Space Within”, an architectural pavilion built from DuneCrete blocks (concrete made with desert sand). The structure’s perforated walls filter the desert sun into shifting patterns, creating a contemplative desert-like sanctuary. By using local sand and cutting cement by half, this pavilion achieves roughly 50% lower embodied carbon than conventional concrete, demonstrating the festival’s emphasis on material innovation and sustainability.

Likewise, ANA Design Consultants (founded by Asli Naz Atasoy) offer “Traces of Musafir”, a circular earthen courtyard that literally erases itself. Visitors walk on a sandy floor where each footprint slowly fades, evoking impermanence. As guests traverse the organic paths, the installation invites reflection on how lives leave only transient marks in the landscape. Both ARDH’s and ANA’s pavilions connect new design techniques to regional heritage, grounding high-tech experimentation in local craft and narrative.

Other installations highlight cultural heritage and memory through craft. Bahrain’s Maraj studio has created “Stories of the Isle and the Inlet”, a sculptural textile enclosure inspired by Nabih Saleh Island’s ecology. Using materials from Bahrain and working with local embroiderers and tailors, the installation is woven with depictions of the island’s flora, fauna and Tubli Bay waters. Its layered mesh form – reminiscent of the traditional thob al nashil garment – combines ornament and proportion to evoke the island’s disappearing environment and cultural memory.

From the UAE, design collective Some Kind of Practice won the Urban Commissions competition with “When Does a Threshold Become a Courtyard?”. This flexible pavilion explores the Gulf’s Emirati housh (courtyard) typology not as a static object but as a byproduct of communal life. The structure is assembled with shifting walls and open thresholds using whatever materials are on hand, and it can support workshops, exhibitions or gatherings while retaining the informal spirit of the traditional courtyard. In this way, it underscores design as a form of collective inquiry – emerging through dialogue between people, place and climate.

International firms also contribute standout installations. Japanese architecture giant Nikken Sekkei, in collaboration with Sobokuya, debuts “Chatai” – a pop-up pavilion that fuses the formality of a traditional tea room (chashitsu) with the casual conviviality of a street stall (yatai). This handcrafted wooden tea house (lit by Panasonic lighting and furnished with tatami mats from Hiroshima Tatamiya) invites visitors to gather in a design that embodies Japanese craft and hospitality.

From the realm of sustainable design comes “Pressure Cooker”, an adaptive greenhouse installation by the UAE’s National Pavilion (from the Venice Biennale). First unveiled at Venice Architecture 2025, this modular assembly examines architecture and food production in arid climates. It literally merges farming with community space: the kit-of-parts can be reconfigured into a greenhouse and communal hall, illustrating a holistic approach to resilience where design supports local food cultivation and social gathering. Together, these installations – from Gulf craft to global innovations – underscore the festival’s theme of design as a connector between heritage and the future.

Engaging Workshops, Talks and Keynotes

Complementing the installations, Dubai Design Week’s Maker Space hosts a rich programme of workshops and masterclasses for all ages. Sessions are led by professors and creatives from around the world, including instructors from University of the Arts London (UAL) and MIT. For example, the “Design for Longevity: Unclocked” workshop (led by Sheng-Hung Lee and Sofie Hodara) lets participants use an MIT-backed framework to prototype services that evolve over a person’s lifetime. Analog photography enthusiasts can join Analog the Room’s workshop to learn classic camera techniques and black-and-white film development.

In another hands-on session, designer Gilda Castro Rios – a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator – runs “Building Ideas with LEGO”, where attendees turn concepts into physical LEGO models to spark collaborative, playful thinking. The Emirates-based design studio Twothirds hosts “Fold & Unfold”, a zine-making workshop that uses collage, photography and typography to help participants craft visual journals from personal stories. These interactive programs – from creative play to craft – reflect DDW’s goal of fostering creativity and skill-building across generations.

The Talks programme further brings global design leaders to Dubai. The Forum at Downtown Design – an amphitheatre-style stage set within the fair – will host live keynotes from internationally acclaimed figures. British designer Tom Dixon makes his Dubai debut here, joined by UK lighting and product designer Lee Broom and French architect-interior designer Isabelle Stanislas.

These high-profile sessions will be complemented by panels and discussions on innovation, sustainability and community in design. By pairing local voices with international experts, the talks reaffirm Dubai Design Week as a vibrant hub of exchange. In the words of festival director Natasha Carella, DDW 2025 “bridges heritage with contemporary” practice and asks “how can design bring people together across disciplines, geographies and generations?” – a mission evident in every pavilion, workshop and keynote of this year’s festival.