Dubai Design Week (DXBDW) is pleased to announce the return of Urban Commissions, DXBDW's annual competition that offers the opportunity to develop outdoor infrastructure in the public domain for Dubai Design District.
2025 Theme
Titled 'Courtyard', the theme explores the spatial typology as a communal urban infrastructure across local and global architectural, urban planning and public practices. Designers were invited to reinterpret the courtyard’s historic role as an inclusive gathering space - balancing public and private, intimacy and openness - while blurring the line between communal architecture and public furniture to encourage movement, interaction and a seamless relationship between enclosure and the outdoors.
2025 Winner
This year’s winning proposal, When Does a Threshold Become a Courtyard?, is by UAE-based design and research studio Some Kind of Practice, founded by Omar Darwish and Abdulla Abbas. Operating at the intersection of architecture, spatial design, curation and public programming, their practice is guided by a commitment to uncovering overlooked narratives, undocumented practices and regionally grounded ways of making and living.
Their proposal is informed by the housh (الحوش), the Emirati courtyard, emerging through shifting walls, open thresholds and the transitional presence of the liwan (الليوان). Drawing on fieldwork across the Emirates - from coastal settlements to mountain villages - the project treats the courtyard not as a fixed object but as a space that arises from the interplay of climate, craft, airflow and human movement, extending a practice rooted in observing, assembling and working with what is already present.
2025 Jury
Create your own programme and select your interests and favoutires
You are using outdated browser, Please use Modern browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox or atleast Edge.
For better web experience, please use the website in portrait mode