{
  "id": 16043422,
  "title": "Dubai Design Week announces five new commissions for Abwab 2026",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/22/dubai-design-week-announces-five-new-commissions-for-abwab-2026",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-22T12:39:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The National UAE",
    "slug": "the-national-uae",
    "url": "https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art-design/2026/10/22/dubai-design-week-announces-five-new-commissions-for-abwab-2026/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Dubai Design Week’s Abwab programme has announced five new commissions for its 2026 edition. The installations, which form part of the festival's 12th iteration, will be displayed at Dubai Design District from November 3 to 8. Commissioned by practitioners from Asia and Africa, the works explore communication through various materials and forms.\n\nThe installations include a seven-metre structure inspired by Kashmiri weaving traditions, using red light and visual language of public signage to communicate quiet. Another work, Cheent Devanagari, challenges the universal treatment of Latin typography by using Devanagari's structural and material traditions.\n\nDubai-based architecture and research practice Varussi, founded by Owais Asif Khan and Samreen Junaid Wani, translates traditional Kashmiri carpet coding into an architectural structure that visitors can enter. The exhibition’s layout allows visitors to move between, through, and above the commissions, with free entry and curator-led walkthroughs exploring the research, materials, and processes behind the works.",
  "summary": "A seven-metre installation featuring red light and a structure inspired by the coded instructions used by Kashmiri weavers are among five new commissions announced for Dubai Design Week’s Abwab programme. Abwab , which means doors in Arabic, commissions new work by practitioners from across Asia and Africa. Dalia Rafeh, Grace Shieh, Kanaka Raghavan, Ubik and architecture and research practice…",
  "key_points": [
    "Dubai Design Week announces five new commissions for Abwab 2026",
    "Installations explore communication through various materials and forms",
    "Commissioned works include Kashmiri weaving-inspired structure and Devanagari typography challenge"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Prioritizing regional craftsmanship through these new commissions signals a shift toward centering Asian and African material traditions within the global design dialogue hosted at the Dubai Design District.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}