Dubai Design Week announces five new commissions for Abwab 2026

Dubai Design Week has announced five new commissions for its Abwab programme in 2026. Abwab, meaning doors in Arabic, commissions work by practitioners from Asia and Africa. This year's theme is In Other Words. The exhibition will take place from November 3 to 8 at Dubai Design District. This is the 12th iteration of the festival, with Abwab showcasing the commissions in an indoor group exhibition for the first time, moving away from individual pavilions.

Established in 2015, Abwab has supported over 180 designers. This year's works explore communication through lettering, textiles, paper and architecture, focusing on how meaning is conveyed through materials and forms.

Three of the commissioners are based in Dubai: Dalia Rafeh, Grace Shieh, and Kanaka Raghavan. Rafeh's commission, Shhhhhhhh, features a seven-metre installation using red light and the Arabic letter sheen, exploring the call for quiet. Varussi, an architecture and research practice founded by Owais Asif Khan and Samreen Junaid Wani, draws on Kashmiri weaving traditions in their commission, Taleem.

The installation, named after the traditional coding system used in Kashmiri carpets and kani shawls, is an architectural structure that visitors can enter. Kanaka Raghavan's Cheent Devanagari challenges the universal treatment of Latin typography, using Devanagari's structural and material traditions, block printing, ornament, and layers of translucent textiles to create letterforms that change appearance as viewers move around them.

The other two commissioners are from India: Vivek Premachandran, also known as Ubik, and Grace Shieh. Ubik's Non/Sense installation examines the interpretation of language through translation, mistranslation, abbreviation, and lorem ipsum, turning text fragments into patterns and spatial structures. Grace Shieh's A Library of Paper Memories combines papermaking, poetry, and experimental writing, exploring how fibres, textures, and forms can carry memories and meaning alongside written words.

Entry to the exhibition is free, and there will be three free curator-led walkthroughs with the participating practitioners to explore their research, materials, and processes.