Doha, Qatar, 31 August 2026 — Design Doha, Qatar’s premier contemporary design platform, will return for its highly anticipated second edition, from 5 November 2026 to 31 January 2027. The biennial will unveil an expansive exhibition programme and showcase the work of over one hundred multidisciplinary designers and studios from across the MENASA region (Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia) and their diasporas. The 2026 edition will be centred in one of Doha’s most significant heritage districts, Fereej Al Asmakh.
Design Doha was established under the leadership of Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums. The 2026 edition is led by Fahad Al Obaidly, Director of Design Doha, with Glenn Adamson serving as Artistic Director to guide the biennial’s curatorial vision and international dialogue.
Building on the remarkable success of its inaugural edition in 2024, Design Doha 2026 marks a significant expansion in scale, ambition, and international reach. The biennial will present more than 15 exhibitions, headlined by Arab Design Now 2026, curated by Noura Al Sayeh and bringing together 81 designers, 78 new commissions and 15 films, with a production scale rarely seen in regional design exhibitions. The participating designers represent 27 countries, working across more than 15 disciplines ranging from architecture, furniture, and product design to craft, urbanism, sound, and social design.
Central to this edition is Fereej Al Asmakh, one of Qatar’s most significant heritage districts, which will serve as a key hub for Design Doha 2026. Rather than functioning solely as a backdrop for exhibitions, Al Asmakh will be a site of cultural production, community engagement, and design-led urban renewal, drawing on the region’s deep well of generational knowledge. The biennial proposes contemporary creative and cultural solutions for the newly renovated district, respecting its historic importance and heritage.
With its expanded footprint, the biennial aims to demonstrate how design and creativity can transform a city responsibly. This expanded presence establishes Design Doha as an activator of spaces and a knowledge platform for cultural exchange and transmission. The biennial connects designers and makers with the public, production networks, international design experts, and new professional opportunities. The biennial nurtures local and regional talent, encourages global exchange, and further enhances Doha’s position as a creative capital in the region. Design Doha is committed to its mission of developing sustainable creative economies in the long term while cementing design’s role in improving current and future living conditions for everyone.
At the core of Design Doha 2026 is the headline exhibition Arab Design Now 2026, curated by Noura Al Sayeh, reinforcing Design Doha’s role as a platform for critical inquiry and exchange. The exhibition will examine contemporary design in the Arab world through five thematic frameworks: Narration and Ornamentation; Land and Agrarian Practices; Landscapes of Production and Extraction; Crafts, Technology, and Community; and Belonging and Migrating.
Alongside Arab Design Now 2026, exhibitions will unfold across Doha, including Msheireb and Fereej Al Asmakh, as well as in Qatar Museums institutions, heritage sites, and public spaces, transforming the city into a connected network of design experiences. The biennial will present these exhibitions in collaboration with leading regional and international institutions including Turquoise Mountain, Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, Ithra, Liwan Design Studios and Labs, among others.
Extending the biennial beyond traditional exhibition spaces and into the fabric of the city, Design Doha 2026 will launch Public Design Commissions, an ambitious programme curated by Javier Peña Ibáñez, Director of Concéntrico, the International Festival of Design and Architecture in Logroño, Spain. Through an open call across the MENASA region, ten designers, architects, and urban practitioners were selected to reimagine public spaces across Qatar. As a first stage, five of these winning proposals will result in context-responsive installations that explore architecture, crafts, sustainability, and cultural identity, activating public spaces across Doha through innovative design interventions. Together, these commissions position the biennial as a site of active experimentation, exchange, and long-term design legacy.
Recognising emerging and established voices across the region, the Design Doha Prize returns in 2026 with four winners selected across the categories of Craft, Product Design, Furniture Design, and Emerging Talent. The Prize is chaired by H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, with a 24-member international jury headed by Iranian-French architect and designer India Mahdavi. Winners will be announced on 7 November 2026 during the biennial’s opening week, reinforcing Design Doha’s commitment to supporting the next generation of design leaders. Together, the four winners will receive a support package comprising QAR 800,000 in funding, in addition to mentorship and opportunities to further develop, showcase, and expand the reach of their work.
Two major bilingual publications—one dedicated to Arab Design Now 2026, and a second documenting the full scope of the biennial—will be complemented by a robust schedule of talks, workshops, and networking platforms.
As part of Qatar’s 2026 Years of Culture initiative, Design Doha will also partner with institutions and designers from across Mexico. This collaboration underscores shared narratives of landscape, craft, and material intelligence across regions shaped by desert ecologies. A major exhibition by Mexico-based designer Fernando Laposse will explore systems of cultivation, community, and material transformation, drawing connections between Mexico and Qatar’s environmental and cultural histories.
Fahad Al Obaidly, Director of Design Doha, said, “Design Doha 2026 marks the next chapter in the biennial’s evolution. What began as a platform to map the design landscape of the MENASA region has developed into an institution that understands design as a system of knowledge shaped by language, landscape, ecology, craft, and the accumulated intelligence of generations. By extending the biennial into the public realm and placing equal emphasis on research, making, and collaboration, Design Doha positions Qatar as a place where design is not only exhibited, but cultivated, produced, and shared. In doing so, the biennial contributes to Qatar’s broader ambitions for cultural, social, economic, and environmental development, strengthening the connections between heritage, innovation, industry, education, and international exchange.”
Glenn Adamson, Artistic Director of Design Doha, said, “Design Doha 2026 expands both the biennial’s scope and international reach. This edition illuminates a constellation of voices across the MENASA region and beyond, demonstrating how design operates through dialogue and exchange. Together, these projects affirm Qatar as a global point of orientation for the future of design.”
Further details and press images for Design Doha 2026, including exhibitions and the prize, are available to download. Details of the Public Design Commissions programme will be announced at a later date.
Early bird tickets for Design Doha 2026 will be available via www.designdoha.org.qa.
Exhibitions
Arab Design Now 2026 - Headline Exhibition
Curated by Noura Al Sayeh, Arab Design Now 2026 presents the work of 81 designers, artisans, and makers. Placing equal emphasis on process and product, the exhibition explores how geography, craft, technology, manufacturing, and social conditions shape design today.
Themes and Participating Designers:
On Narration and Ornamentation
Dima Srouji and Hooda Shawa, Shahira Fahmy Architects, Abdulrahman Al Muftah, Zoubida, Atelier Aziz Alqatami, Hassene Jeljeli, Selma Lazrak, Dar Arafa Architecture, Ahmed Angawi, Mehdi Dakhli, Hind Al Saad, Talin Hazbar, Tarek Shamma, Roham Shamekh, Faissal El-Malak, Shaikha Al Sulaiti, Imane Mellah
On Land – Agrarian Practices
Aziza Chaouni Projects, Sakiya, Mirna Bamieh, Boo Design Studio, Local Industries + Studio Folder + Kazna Asker, MODEEN, Samer Selbak, Hall Haus, FADAA, IBKKI, Studio Aya Moug, Aya Haidar, Adrian Müller, Nuhayr Zein, Shepherd Studio + Abdulla Buhijji, Samah Hijawi, Studio Bazazo
Landscapes of Production – Landscapes of Extraction
Shaha Raphael, Ammar Kalo, Ammar Khammash, Twelve Degrees, Harness the Heat, Sama Al Saket, Karim + Elias, Material Cultures, Fatima Nickahdar, Omar Chakil, STUDIO-DA, KAMEH, Al Tqadum, Carl Gerges Architects, Mohamad Nahleh and Rana Haddad, Mohamed Amine Hamouda, India Mahdavi
Crafts, Technology, and Community
Tahir Sultan, Mhairi Boyle, Maryam Al Jomairi, Dima Al Tawil, Nourredine Amir, Victoria Dabdoub, Ayham Hassan, Zineb Kertane, Nathalie Khayat, Nada Al Mulla, Lobna Sana, Farah Abdelhamid, Ibbini Studio, Ola Saad Znad, Wesam Al Asali, Tamara Kalo
Belonging and Migrating
Abdel El Tayeb, Studio Safar, Sarah Elawad, Maryam Turkey, Dina Satti, Ramdane Touhami, Rand Abdul Jabbar, Shireen Taweel, Architecture and Other Things, Aisha Al Suwaidi, Emii Alrai, Hussein Shikha, Yassine Ben Abdallah
Aslan’s Love Story
Partner: Turquoise Mountain
Curator: George Tadros
Aslan’s Love Story traces the life of Nabulsi tile artisan Jalal Aslan through crafts shaped by love, memory and loss. Connecting four craft traditions through the stages of a Palestinian wedding, the installation positions making as testimony, rather than closure. Craft becomes an evolving cultural force, sustaining identity amid displacement and fragmentation.
The Sower
Artist: Fernando Laposse
Curator: Mario Ballesteros
Presented by Design Doha in partnership with Qatar Canada Mexico 2026 Year of Culture, The Sower is Fernando Laposse’s first exhibition in the MENA region. Drawing on fifteen years of collaboration with rural communities, it connects Mexico and Qatar through desert ecologies and the history of trade. New works explore memory and environmental responsibility, with a living seed bank at the centre of the exhibit, proposing design as cultivation and farming as culture.
Design Labs II
Partner: Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council
Curator: Reem Saif Al Mazrouei
Design Labs II represents a pivotal chapter in Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council’s research. Through bespoke collections co-created by Irthi artisans and regional and international designers, and grounded in the organisation’s Architecture of Culture publication, the exhibition transforms nine recipes into installations and furniture. In doing so, it repositions craft as a living, adaptive methodology, recognising artisans as cultural co-authors who shape the future through collaboration, knowledge, and innovation.
Post-Oil 2026
Partner: Saudi Modern Initiative
Curators: Turki and Abdulrahman Gazzaz
Post-Oil 2026 examines five materials—glass, concrete, steel, aluminum, and asphalt—that reshaped Saudi Arabia and the GCC during the oil boom. Through artistic and design investigations, the exhibition reflects on how industrialisation transformed urban form, construction logic, political approach, and cultural perception, embedding new economies into the built environment.
The Thread That Binds
Partner: TheLoveTriangle Collective
Curator: Rana Rmeily
The Thread That Binds celebrates Khous and Khaizaran weaving traditions rooted in palm fronds and reeds. Conceived as a participatory installation, artisans and visitors weave collectively over time, allowing patterns to emerge through shared labour and exchange. The work unfolds as a living archive, foregrounding process as communal authorship rather than a finished object.
Monumental: A Monobloc’s Memoir
Partner and Curator: Houhou
Monumental examines how the “Monobloc” chair embedded itself in collectivistic Arab culture. Surrealist sculptural reinterpretations of the ubiquitous plastic chair elevate the everyday to architectural scale, reframing a familiar object as both a cultural archive and a contemporary monument.
BU’ED NADHAR - Beyond Immediate Vision
Partner: Liwan Design Studios and Labs
Director and Curator: Aisha Nasser Al Sowaidi
Bu’ed Nadhar, meaning “beyond immediate vision,” frames design as a temporal and reflective practice that navigates memory, material knowledge, and cultural continuity, shaping the environments of tomorrow while remaining accountable to the past. Presented at Liwan Design Studios and Labs, the exhibition features 27 works developed through five residencies and collaborative experiments by 21 artists across the Gulf and neighbouring regions.
The Muqarnas of Sadu
Partner: Al Sadu Society
Artist: Ghadeer Mohammed
Curator: Sahar Almuscati
The Muqarnas of Sadu merges the two-dimensional language of Sadu weaving with the three-dimensional geometry of Muqarnas architecture. Using parametric modelling and aluminium construction, traditional motifs are translated into spatial form, transforming surface into structure. Composed of modular elements that filter light and reflection, the installation renders heritage as layered, multidimensional, and dynamically reinterpreted.
Design from Oasis
Partner and Curator: King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra)
The Design from Oasis showcases Ithra’s ongoing investment in cultural ecosystems that interweave craft, material knowledge, and collective memory. Drawing inspiration from Al Khoos Initiative, this exhibition presents design as a practice embedded in place, tradition, and community interaction. Al Khoos Initiative celebrates the date palm as a cultural and ecological anchor in Saudi Arabia, foregrounding palm weaving (khoos) as a living craft that bridges heritage and contemporary design sensibilities.
Beyond The Letters
Partner: TypeAraby
Curators: Ali Asali and Basma Hamdy
Beyond The Letters approaches Arabic and Persian typography as a living system of knowledge rather than a purely graphic form. Framing script as architecture of meaning shaped by spirituality, geography, and embodied practice, the exhibition expands letterforms into spatial, material, and relational environments. Through installations, textiles, sculptural works, and participatory formats, ancestral calligraphy enters dialogue with contemporary technologies, including generative systems and AI.
INTERLACED: Dialogues in Design
Partner: FROMM.
Curator: Etienne Bastormagi
INTERLACED: Dialogues in Design explores the intersection of Arab heritage and contemporary global practice through furniture and objects conceived as sites of exchange. Tracing the region’s historic role as a crossroads of trade and craft circulation, the exhibition frames design identity as shaped by movement and mediation.
Threading the Ceremony
Partner: Studio Design LO
Curators: Ester Lipsch and Lubna Osman
Rooted in the Sudanese Jirtig marriage ritual, Threading the Ceremony reinterprets ceremonial space as architectural installation. A Nubian pyramid clad in woven Firka fabric frames objects associated with marriage rites, while the fabric becomes a metaphor for memory under strain, suspended between continuity and disruption.
Migrating Heritage
Partner: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum
Curator: Konul Rafiyeva
Migrating Heritage explores how textile knowledge travels across time, media, and communities. Centred on the Azerbaijani nomadic object məfrəş, the exhibition brings historical woven objects into dialogue with contemporary design and media practices, positioning textile as a medium of memory, ecological intelligence, and cultural transmission. Rather than reconstructing heritage, the project reinterprets it through contemporary curatorial practice, opening new perspectives on mobility, sustainability, and living knowledge.
From Fable to Fiber: The Kalila wa Dimna Triptych
Partner: Iwan Maktabi
Curators: Louis Barthélemy in collaboration with Iwan Maktabi
From Fable to Fiber presents a contemporary triptych of hand-knotted textile works by Louis Barthélemy in collaboration with Iwan Maktabi. Inspired by the timeless animal fables of Kalila wa Dimna, first translated into Arabic in the 8th century, the project reinterprets these allegorical tales through a vibrant contemporary visual language. Each wall-mounted rug merges traditional craftsmanship in wool and silk with playful modern symbolism, creating richly layered narrative objects that bridge past and present, East and West.
Traces of the Desert Light
Partner: SANAE
Curator: Tine De Beck
Traces of the Desert Light explores design as a sensory and relational process shaped by material, architecture, and Doha’s distinctive luminosity. Bringing together collaborative works by Morevi x Majdulin Nasrallah, Moss Studio × Josef Gereige, Ayse Habibe Kucuk, and Studio Khachatryan x Shaikha Al-Sulaiti x Ángela Ramos Garcés, the exhibition foregrounds craft as shared knowledge rooted in tactility and dialogue.
Light & Process
Partner: MODEEN
Curator: Andia Modeen
Light & Process brings together over a decade of development of MODEEN’s luminary objects, exploring the studio’s design process from ideation and prototyping to final product. Blurring lines between disciplines and redefining the boundaries between art and design, the process is shown through sketches, prototypes, and experimentation, which culminate in final pieces born of collaboration and the reimagining of earlier works. The exhibition reveals the creative conversation between handmade craftsmanship and contemporary technologies to produce hybridised, enigmatic objects that exist at the intersection of traditional and contemporary formats of design.
More information about the exhibitions will be released soon.
Design Doha 2026 is part of Evolution Nation, a campaign honouring Qatar’s cultural journey over the past 50 years, since the founding of the National Museum of Qatar. Curated by Qatar Creates, the national initiative positions Qatar as a global hub for art, culture, and creativity.
