What does a new generation of UAE designers inherit, and what do they choose to do with it? This year, the UAE Designer Exhibition turns its attention to the material, rituals, industries, technologies and ways of making that continue to shape design practice in the country. 

Under the theme ‘Inherited Futures’, Emirati architect and designer AlZaina Lootah will explore how these inheritances can be reinterpreted, challenged and carried forward.

For AlZaina, whose practice moves between architecture, material culture and contemporary design, inheritance extends beyond tradition. Landscapes, memory and systems of making become starting points for new ideas, opening up connections between cultural knowledge and the realities of designing today. 

Conceived as a ‘Landscape of Conversations’, the exhibition will bring together UAE-based designers whose works sit in dialogue rather than isolation, revealing different approaches to material, form, process and place, taking physical form through a ‘Majlis of the Future’, with the works offering a snapshot of a design culture being shaped in real time; one that draws from the UAE’s evolving cultural and material landscape while reflecting the many perspectives shaping design in the country today. 

The UAE Designer Exhibition is supported by Dubai Culture, and continues to provide a platform for creatives based and practicing in the UAE, reflecting the country’s evolving design landscape while offering a platform of opportunity.