Abwab, meaning 'doors' in Arabic, is a programme that supports practitioners from across West, South and East Asia, as well as the African continent, through the commissioning of pavilions that are thematically remodelled each year to reflect timely global and regional contexts.

To date, over 180 designers from across the region have participated in Abwab, representing a range of countries including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the UAE.

2025 Theme

This year’s theme, ‘In the Details’, invites designers, architects, researchers, archivists and all creative practitioners from across West, South and East Asia, as well as the African continent to explore ornamental details - drawing from architectural research, textiles, applied surfaces and narrative-driven aesthetics. ‘In the Details’ is a call for cultural excavation, spotlighting ornamentation’s enduring relationship to history, heritage and identity.

Across geographies and generations, ornament has served as more than decoration. Whether carved, woven, painted, or inscribed, it functions as a repository of memory embodying expression, belief systems, cultural rituals, aspirations and collective storytelling.

Ornament, whether historic, traditional, modular, experimental, or site-specific functions as a visual vocabulary that conveys memory, meaning and cultural narratives across time. Designers are encouraged to explore colour as a language of cultural continuity expressed through pigment or pattern that carries symbolic significance.

Proposals are invited to explore ornament as a primary language that transforms detail into immersive spatial experiences. Participants are encouraged to engage historical forms, motifs and textures through design. This could involve isolating, exaggerating, amplifying, shifting scale or applying fragmented details into unexpected spatial applications. We seek works that engage with symbolic detail in concept and scale the intimate into the monumental.

Applications for Abwab are now closed. For enquiries, please reach out to [email protected].