Dubai Design Week (DXB)
Creative Director: Rawan Kashkoush 
Images courtesy: Dubai Design Week
Year: 2017

For its third edition, DXBDW’s key regional show, Abwab was housed in a specially designed pavilion in the heart of Dubai Design District. The structure was constructed from locally sourced material and designed by UAE-based architecture practice. Dubai Design Week audiences experienced not just the unique space, but also a curated showcase of contemporary design products drawn from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. At the core of the exhibition was a stage from which the complexity of cultures and design perspective across the region came alive.

Abwab means ‘doors’ in Arabic; the exhibition is a highlight of Dubai Design Week and is the only initiative of its kind to offer regional design talent from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA). 

Abwab originally consisted of independent pavilions hosting six countries, in 2017 the concept evolved into a single pavilion in the heart of Dubai Design District (d3). Over 250 designers were reached through an innovative peer-selection process; ‘designer dominos’ as a pay-it-forward mechanism to strengthen a community, whereby in order to be considered for selection to exhibit, a designer is required to nominate the next designer to submit. Through designer-dominos, work from 15 countries were exhibited. 

The final showcase of contemporary design works were chosen by an international editorial board for being strong representations of ideas or production techniques rooted in these regions. The Editorial Board was made up of Lateefa Bint Maktoum, Joy Mardini, Max Fraser and Rawan Kashkoush.

This year’s Abwab pavilion was an architectural investigation of locally sourced materials designed by Dubai-based multidisciplinary architectural firm Fahed + Architects. 

The Abwab Pavilion was built by Plan B. The Pavilion skin was lent from Bee'ah.