Dubai Design Week 2020
For a person who admires the kind of architecture that is a living response to culture, place and climate, living mundanely in Dubai is a conflicting experience. Like most people living outside of Middle East, my opinion also used to revolve around that of a person who is averse to glass and steel architecture. It is a common perception that outsiders have of Dubai, one that is insensitive to climate, or a city of make believe that’s growing inorganically every passing year. I think living here has changed my perception and I took a little more interest in understanding the impression of the artist.
The vision of this glorious city’s Leader His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is to make Dubai a smart city for its inhabitants and in turn to be the happiest city on earth. As naively optimistic as it sounds, its important to first understand why its ambitious. For a city that has the geography and the topography that’s unfavorable to its inhabitants, Dubai has come a long way for becoming the ultimate tourist hub and for offering a comfortable lifestyle to everyone all times of the year. The city is clearly characterized by two polarized climates — summers that last for about eight months and winters for four. The soil condition is sandy, the winds are strong and the land has long harbors that engage actively in trade and commerce. It reminds me of the design problems floated in architecture schools — a location with challenges. Most times, the best design solutions sprout from a difficult design problem that has an imaginative approach and might sound strangely unlikely but would end up being incredibly amazing if its worked on the details. And that’s what Dubai has ended up being — a city that’s so smart and tech savvy that you have no option but upgrade yourself. And that opens up avenues for designers — speaking fluently across all fields in the language of design that gracefully communicates with all human beings irrespective of nationality, religion, color or ethnicity. It looks at people independently and objectively — as users, users of a sensitively designed city.
The design sensitive approach forces the user to be more conscious of their surroundings and their approach. It highlights the system and the efficiency by which it runs. The city in itself is encouraging the user to reduce the everyday hustle by saving time and energy and is also making spaces to enjoy the time that you saved. It sheds light on the city becoming a home to happiness, in between all the well design public spaces and the user-friendly interactions. It silently preaches that a happy everyday life should not just be for the privileged but for all humans irrespective of what work they do. Inadvertently, a well-designed city becomes an unbiased quotient of happiness for all humans alike. Since Dubai is a mixed bowl of ethnicity and workforce, its design language had to be as simplified as possible. It achieves so by encouraging the best of design minds to create and propose new ideas that would suit the city’s needs. A place for user friendly designers that care about infrastructure, info-graphics, furniture, vegetation, animals, climate, entertainment — anything that a user interacts with and could care about. It urges them to strike a balance between the traditional and modern ideas and ergo the essence isn’t diluted.
I feel, this years Dubai Design Week was a little more special than the previous years. It is organized in the Dubai Design District — a common place that houses a wide range of creative minds. Architecturally, it is a well massed mix of open, semi open and closed spaces. The pro-user approach of the Leadership and his government made it possible to host the largest cultural event of this region in the wake of a pandemic. One could easily see, that the pandemic has inspired people to think in a different dimension incorporating ideas of social distancing, touch free user interfaces, new line of product design highlighting masks, gloves etc and making human interaction possible and safe in such trying times. It showcased ongoing iconic architectural projects of the Middle East Region, some of the latest products developed from local waste of palm trees, locally made block-work prototypes, cigarette butts that prevents the birds from consuming it, a wide range of interior design products, an assortment of fashion, fabrics and jewelry, interactive installations and best of all, different kinds public seating spaces designed in mind keeping the social distancing norms. Since Dubai is a melting pot of a lot of cultures, the outcome in retail and design sector is as hybrid as it can be. It inspires conversations and partnerships that dissolve the boundaries and integrates something cohesive to both cultures.
It was a delight to observe how accessible design is for any kind of user. It is even more heartwarming to see events like these becoming a go to place for families and not just designers to understand the trends in the market but also for creators preaching sustainable and global solutions to everyone, educating one mind at a time. People getting their kids for some interactive fun and unknowingly the kids with the truest intent engaging with the products meant for exploration has to be the best reward for any designer. In the past decade, design and well-designed things and spaces have become parts of casual conversations among masses. It shows how seamlessly ingrained the idea of design is in daily life — simplifying and bringing convenience to all living here. It could have been a train wreck having so many cultures under a city’s roof; language barrier being one of the most promising tasks to handle. But it has been tackled by having a neutral design approach accompanied by simplified visual graphics that people can independently operate. It is intimidating for sure — but it forces you to have a new experience, leaving you wanting to explore more.
