DUBAI DESIGN WEEK
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Established in 2015, Dubai Design Week is Middle East’s most important design event. It is one
of the most comprehensive and accessible celebrations of design and creativity to ever be staged
in the region. The third edition of the event occurred from 13-18 November and had more than
200 activities staged across the city. The six-day event gathered designers, architects, thought-
leaders and creatives who had the opportunity to experience a high-calibre design programme.
The prestigious event is held under the patronage of Her High-
ness 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 has truly
established a new benchmark for the city’s reputation as a vi-
brant and diverse platform. Dubai Design Week’s programme
consisted of a series of shows and installations, including Down-
ton Design, Global Grad Show, exhibitions at d3, live events,
talks and seminars, and much more. These features open up a
wide range of opportunities for industry professional and design
enthusiasts to learn, be inspired, network, do business and cele-
brate the constructive impact and potential of design. First and
foremost, Downtown Design is the commercial heart of Dubai
Design Week and the region’s leading design trade show held
at the new d3 waterfront event space. The event has double its
size this year by exhibiting more than 150 contemporary design
brands from twenty-five countries. In addition, the show fea-
tured seventy new high-end international and regional brands,
and eight emerging design brands from the UAE region also had
the opportunity to showcase their work for the first time at the
event. Considered to be the “Oscars” of graduate design and tech-
nology, Global Grad Show is the world’s largest and most diverse
meeting of design and innovation graduates.
The show displays around 200 projects in an effort to demon-
strate the progressive thinking of the future of design, science
and innovation. The show saw the collaboration of the 90 of the
most elite universities, including The Royal College of Art (Lon-
don), Stanford University (California) and RMIT Melbourne,
alongside schools from emerging design centres, such as Pearl
Academy (New Delhi) and Makerere University (Kampala). d3
hosted a series of exhibitions, commissioned installations and
