Dubai Design Week has revealed the programme for its 12th edition, returning to Dubai Design District from 3 to 8 November 2026.
This year’s event brings together regional and international designers, architects and creatives to explore how design influences the spaces we inhabit, the objects we use and the ways we connect. Across exhibitions, installations, talks and workshops, the programme considers the experiences and relationships that form around design, from shared gathering spaces to the materials and traditions that shape everyday life.
This year’s highlights reflect the festival’s focus on how design can shape connection, bringing together ideas rooted in Emirati heritage, regional traditions and contemporary creative practice.
Here are 6 highlights worth looking out for.
Three Gardens and a Room
Designed by Dubai-based NAO Architects, founded by Reem Nassour, this year’s winning Urban Commissions proposal creates three interconnected gardens around a central gathering space. Responding to the theme Atmospheres, the installation uses foliage, shade, colour, materiality and filtered light to create distinct environments. Together, the gardens form a room where visitors can gather, pause and connect, exploring how simple architectural elements shape our experience of a place.
Taqleem
Emirati architect Rasha Saffarini reinterprets the traditional practice of palm-tree trimming through a contemporary communal installation, drawing on Emirati craftsmanship, culture and collective memory. Presented as part of the festival’s programme of installations across d3, Taqleem brings a familiar cultural practice into a new spatial setting, creating a place for gathering rooted in local heritage.
Inherited Futures
The UAE Designer Exhibition returns with architect and designer AlZaina Lootah as its 2026 Design Collaborator. Supported by Dubai Culture, the exhibition brings together UAE-based designers to explore how inherited materials, rituals, technologies and ways of making can inform contemporary design. Under the theme Inherited Futures, it considers how these practices can be reinterpreted and carried forward, connecting cultural heritage with new creative possibilities.
Nadine Kanso and Omar Al Gurg for Iwan Maktabi
UAE-based designers Nadine Kanso and Omar Al Gurg will present new works for Iwan Maktabi, the family business specialising in rare carpets, textiles and collectible design, at Downtown Design. Kanso draws on Arabic calligraphy and symbols of the UAE, while Al Gurg takes inspiration from memories of the traditional majlis. Their works bring distinct perspectives on cultural identity and memory to the fair, which runs from 4 to 8 November.
Memphis Milano
Downtown Design will present a dedicated exhibition celebrating the Memphis design movement, known for its bold colours, graphic patterns and unconventional forms. The showcase will explore the movement’s distinctive visual language and its continuing influence on contemporary design, adding another perspective to the fair’s mix of international brands, regional talent and immersive experiences.
Abwab: In Other Words
The Abwab programme returns with a new format, moving away from individual pavilions to bring multiple designers and creative practitioners together in a shared exhibition. Titled In Other Words, it explores how language extends beyond speech and writing through signage, symbols, interfaces, gestures and oral histories. Through visual, spatial and sonic design, the exhibition considers how meaning is communicated, remembered, translated and sometimes misread.
