DUBAI, 13th October, 2026 (WAM) -- Dubai Design Week will return to Dubai Design District (d3) from 3-8 November 2026, marking the 12th edition of the region’s leading design festival. Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the festival is presented in strategic partnership with d3, the global creative hub that is part of TECOM Group, and supported by Dubai Culture.
For more than a decade, Dubai Design Week has brought together designers, architects, creative practitioners and audiences from across the region and beyond. In 2026, the festival turns its attention to the role design can play in strengthening connection at a time when the ways we interact, work and communicate are being rapidly reshaped.
Across the programme, projects consider the experiences, encounters and relationships that form around design – from the spaces people gather in and the languages they use, to the objects, materials and systems that shape everyday life. This thinking runs through a multidisciplinary programme of exhibitions, commissions, installations, talks, workshops and public activations, spanning architecture, design, craft, technology and material experimentation.
“Creativity is a powerful catalyst for growth and progress, and each year Dubai Design Week provides the ideal platform to showcase and celebrate the wealth of creative ability from Dubai, the wider region and beyond,” said Khadija Al Bastaki, Senior Vice President of Dubai Design District (d3), part of TECOM Group. “Through our longstanding strategic partnership with Dubai Design Week, we continue to nurture, enable and champion creativity, reinforcing Dubai’s position as a global hub for creativity and design excellence, in line with Design Sector Strategy 2033.”
Shaima Rashed Al Suwaidi, CEO of the Arts, Design and Literature Sector at Dubai Culture, highlighted Dubai Design Week’s role in advancing the design sector, expanding opportunities for creative talent and strengthening Dubai’s standing as the first city in the Middle East designated a UNESCO Creative City of Design.
She said: “Dubai Design Week brings the diversity and vitality of our creative community into focus, connecting designers from the UAE with practitioners and audiences from around the world. It gives them opportunities to exchange ideas, develop their practice and explore how design can shape our communities and cities.
Through our support for the festival, we help emerging talent build their capabilities, experiment with materials and technologies, and reach wider audiences. These opportunities contribute to the growth and competitiveness of Dubai’s cultural and creative industries, supporting the emirate’s vision to be a global cultural reference, a leader in innovation, a driver of the creative economy, and rooted in Emirati heritage.”
Natasha Carella, Director for Dubai Design Week, commented: “Design has always responded to the world around us, but the conditions we are navigating today are increasingly complex and interconnected. Its role extends far beyond the objects and spaces we create. Design influences how we live, how our cities function and how we respond to change.
Dubai Design Week is an opportunity to examine that wider role, bringing different perspectives and forms of knowledge into conversation because no single discipline or point of view can address these questions alone. It is through that exchange that we can challenge assumptions, encounter different ways of thinking and consider how design might shape the world we want to live in.”