Design Doha announces winners of inaugural Design Doha Prize
By Hermoine Macura-Noble
Special to The Times Kuwait
Design Doha concluded an inspiring week of various exhibitions, panels, and events that aimed to promote new and inspiring artists from the MENA region by announcing the inaugural winners of the highly converted Design Doha Prize. The winners of the 2024 Design Doha Prize are Fabraca Studios for Product Design (Lebanon), Fadaa for Interior Design (Jordan), Sayar & Garibeh for Furniture Design (Lebanon), and Abeer Seikaly for Craft (Jordan).
Established to provide recognition and support for exceptional designers in the categories of product design, interior Design, furniture design, and craft – Design Doha is a new Qatar Museums’ biennial event, established under the leadership of Qatar Museums’ Chairperson, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and a showcase for excellence and innovation in the design community in Qatar and the MENA region.
“I offer my warmest congratulations to the winners of this first Design Doha Prize. Through their remarkable artistry and rising careers, the recipients exemplify the success of Design Doha in offering a new platform to practitioners across the Arab world, helping them to build professional pathways and to engage with the acclaimed international design professionals who have convened at this landmark inaugural event,” Shared Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums and founder of Design Doha.
Design Doha Prize recipients receive approximately USD 27,500 to sustain their practices, mentorship support from international designers and industry experts, access to new platforms to show their work and generate additional market exposure, a year of logistical and insurance support, and more.
Design Doha Prize winners were selected by a jury of renowned design professionals and curators representing local, regional, and international design communities. Competitors for the Prize were required to have an established design business in the MENA region with an active commercial history of between two and ten years. Submissions were judged on criteria including innovation, practicality (including potential market demand), sustainability, and social responsibility.
“Celebrating the accomplished and inventive designers based here through Design Doha further elevates and supports designers and our creative industries. We congratulate this year’s Design Doha Prize recipients and are excited to see how the award helps them in their creative and commercial practices,” added Design Doha Deputy Director of Programming and Partnerships Fahad Al Obaidly.
Arab Design Now, the anchor event of the inaugural Design Doha biennial, opened on February 24th and remains on view through August 5th, 2024. The exhibition surveys more than 70 Arab designers featuring 38 commissioned works.
Design Doha also includes five other exhibitions, commissioned public artworks, and events and panel presentations covering architecture, urbanism, landscape and graphic Design, craft, and other subjects.
Curated by Rana Beiruti, Co-founder of Amman Design Week, Arab Design Now examines how local and regional designers balance contemporary design with traditional methods derived from the region’s heritage, with a particular focus on environmental concerns and sustainable Design.
Designers, from the Levant to the Gulf to North Africa, exhibit a commitment to heritage-based traditions and rituals and an eagerness to rediscover, reinterpret, and evolve them. Their design process is inspired by a culture centered on community, collaboration, and co-creation. Their material sensibilities exhibit an intimate relationship with the land and earth and respond to the unique geographies of the region,” shared Beiruti.
Designers featured in Arab Design Now include Basma Hamdy (Qatar), Levi Hammett (Qatar), Ali Ismail Karimi (Bahrain), Hamed Bukhamseen (Kuwait), Nermeen and Nisreen Abudail (Jordan), David Raffoul (Lebanon), Nicolas Moussallem (Lebanon), Hala Al-Ani (UAE), Hadeyeh Badri (UAE), Riem Ibrahim (UAE), Georges Mohasseb (Lebanon), 40MUSTAQEL (Egypt) and many others.
Design Doha is the new biennial showcase for excellence and innovation in the design community in Qatar and the MENA region. The inaugural edition begins with a week of special events and exhibition openings from 24-28 February 2024, with programming running through August 5th, 2024.
Established under the leadership of Qatar Museums’ Chairperson, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Design Doha will be a new platform for practitioners from across the Arab world, helping to build professional pathways and engage with acclaimed design professionals from around the world who will convene at the event. Design Doha events will be held within Msheireb, a creative neighborhood in Doha that nurtures collaboration and creativity.
By Hermoine Macura-Noble
The first Australian English speaking News Anchor in the Middle East. She is also the Author of Faces of the Middle East and Founder of US-based 501c3 charity – The House of Rest which helps to ease the suffering of victims of war. For more from our Contributing Editor, you can follow her on Instagram, here.
