Dubai Design Week 2025 drew diverse audiences with a week of programming focused on community and cross-cultural collaborations.
The 11th edition featured a dynamic programme of special commissions, exhibitions, installations, workshops, talks, live events and a weekend marketplace. This year’s festival presented design not only as a practice of innovation but also as a social connector and a civic, cultural tool shaping how communities lived together, communicated and built lasting systems of care.
Dubai Design Week continued to emphasise cross-cultural exchange, amplifying voices from West and South Asia as well as the wider Global South, creating a dynamic space for dialogue, experimentation and progress. Over 1,000 established and emerging designers and creative practitioners - including DEOND, Nikken Sekkei, Special Commissions winners Maraj and Some Kind of Practice, Bricklab, The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in collaboration with Izaskun Chinchilla Architects, among others - from more than 50 countries came together to exchange ideas, inspire audiences and enrich critical conversations that informed the design industry worldwide.
Downtown Design, the anchor fair of the festival, celebrated its 12th edition with a focus on collaboration, bringing together leading international brands, regional players and local talents. The fair attracted more than 25,000 visitors over five days, with over 330 brands and designers exhibiting from 35 countries, including 200 international participants, 125 from across the region (from Turkey to India and Pakistan) and more than 100 UAE-based brands and designers. The fair was complemented by a line-up of creative experiences, pop-up concepts, immersive installations alongside collateral programmes of talks, masterclasses and networking events.
The UAE Designer Exhibition returned for its sixth edition with an expanded format that aimed to further enhance opportunities and increase direct exposure for more than 30 early-stage career creatives based in the UAE. Nada Debs led the mentorship programme for this year’s participants, providing direct insights to support and strengthen the next steps in each designer’s journey.
This year’s talks theatre, The Forum at Downtown Design -envisioned by Lebanese architect and designer Roula Salamoun - hosted the week’s flagship talks programme, which brought together global and regional design leaders for keynote presentations, panel discussions and masterclasses. A roster of international speakers, including Tom Dixon, Lee Broom and David Hicks, appeared alongside prominent regional figures such as Rabah Saeid and Pallavi Dean, among others.
Editions Art & Design, the region’s first fair for limited edition art and design, returned for its second edition alongside Downtown Design. Editions exhibited limited edition works from over 25 regional and international galleries, design studios and collectives, presenting works across the mediums of prints, ceramics, photography and contemporary design, offering a welcoming experience for visitors at every stage of their collecting journey.