Urban Commissions, Dubai Design Week’s design competition, is an annual programme that provides a platform for architects and designers to experiment with outdoor infrastructure for the public realm.
For 2025, the competition centres on the theme 'Courtyard', a spatial typology deeply rooted in this region yet resonant across many cultures and climates. Designers and architects were invited to reimagine the courtyard as communal urban infrastructure, drawing on its historic role as an inclusive space while addressing contemporary urban needs through climate-responsive strategies, adaptable forms that foster interaction and dissolving boundaries between public furniture and communal architecture.
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. With a methodology rooted in field research, archival engagement and collaborative processes, Some Kind of Practice frames design as a tool for making visible what is often unseen. Its portfolio spans built interventions, curatorial projects and educational initiatives, frequently exploring the cultural, social, and environmental dynamics of the Gulf region. Whether through public installations, research-based exhibitions or academic collaborations, the studio redefines design practice as a form of collective inquiry; one that listens, remembers and responds with care.
Their winning proposal is informed by the housh (الحوش) the Emirati courtyard. Unlike the formal, central courtyards of Egypt, Syria or Saudi Arabia, the housh in the Emirates emerges as a byproduct of necessity: a space by shifting walls, open thresholds and the transitional presence of the liwan (الليوان). Here, the courtyard is less about formal composition and, instead a response to climate, materials and patterns of communal life.
Drawing from their fieldwork across the Emirates, from coastal settlements to mountain villages, their project approached the courtyard not as a fixed object, but as a space that happens when walls, roofs, airflow and human movement intersect. Their fieldwork revealed how local builders assembled with what was at hand: stacking stone or CMU, spanning Arish or corrugated steel, and leaving openings for air to circulate. What they encountered was not a singular style, but a logic of assemblage, adaptation and practical craft.
Building on this reading, and informed by their fieldwork across the Emirates, from coastal settlements to mountain villages, their project approached the courtyard not as a fixed object, but as a space that happens when walls, roofs, airflow and human movement intersect. Their fieldwork across the Emirates — from coastal settlements to mountain villages — revealed how local builders assembled with what was at hand: stacking stone or CMU, spanning Arish or corrugated steel, and leaving openings for air to circulate. What they encountered was not a singular style, but a logic of assemblage, adaptation and practical craft.
Their proposal follows this same logic. It extends a practice rooter in observing, assembling and working with what is already present. In this, the courtyard becomes not a designed object, but a quiet byproduct of a method grounded in study, making, and responsive construction.