Downtown Design Riyadh 2025: Wallpaper’s highlights
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Staged on the Jax District artistic hub – a collection of former industrial warehouses transformed into exhibition areas, artwork and design studios and galleries – Downtown Design Riyadh introduced collectively over 40 native and worldwide manufacturers, with an emphasis on regional designers and particular collaborations.
As Saudi Arabia continues to develop and broaden at a time of speedy change, the nation is turning into a formidable participant on the design scene, with a singular type that pushes the boundaries of reinventing heritage, utilizing pure supplies and gentle earthy palettes.
Listed below are eight highlights from the honest’s inaugural version.
‘Raha’ desk by Naif Altabai for Designed in Saudi
(Picture credit score: Designed in Saudi)
This minimalist espresso desk designed by Saudi designer Naif Altabai is crafted as a part of the Designed in Saudi platform – an initiative led by the Structure and Design Fee that helps rising native designers. Impressed by the grinding stone device, the desk encompasses a base manufactured from mahogany wooden slices, with every slice crafted at a unique angle to imitate the pure protrusions of stone. The desk is topped with round marble plates, reflecting the grinding results seen on a millstone, full with a central pivot level on the prime and hidden rotation mechanism for adaptable use.
‘Moon Vignettes’ by Babnimnim Design Studio for Cosentino
(Picture credit score: Cosentino)
‘Moon Vignettes’ is an immersive, tactile set up created by Kuwait-based Babnimnim Design Studio (BNN) for Spanish architectural surfaces specialist Cosentino. Incorporating a desert-inspired color palette and the uncooked fantastic thing about the area’s panorama, the set up is a up to date reinterpretation of The Moon Gate, a mystical architectural factor of jap origin. Symbolic of the cyclical nature of life, the abstracted moon gates within the set up allude to the round nature of Cosentino’s sustainable surfaces Silestone and Dekton – the model’s large-format hero supplies that seamlessly clad every thing from the partitions to the flooring, now proven as constructing blocks slightly than merely cladding.
‘Talisman 14’ by Equipment for Collectional
(Picture credit score: Collectional)
Echoing the mysticism of historical relics and the precision of latest craft, ‘Talisman 14’ by New York-based studio Equipment, for the UAE’s Collectional gallery, stands as a luminous tribute to ritual and refinement. Impressed by the decorative richness of the traditional Persian metropolis of Persepolis, the chandelier combines hand-patinated brass with semi-precious stones like agate, desert jasper and white jade, every fastidiously set utilizing fluted brass pins alongside a leather-bound armature. The sculptural chandelier echoes Saudi’s design aesthetics, particularly these impressed by historical architectural options.
‘Personal’ assortment by Dastaangoi
(Picture credit score: Dastaangoi)
Dubai-based dwelling perfume model Dastaangoi, recognized for celebrating the fragrant heritage of the Center East and South Asia, unveils a brand new assortment created particularly for the Saudi market. Rooted in a love for regional artwork, storytelling, and custom, Dastaangoi’s new assortment is crafted utilizing regional supplies equivalent to marble and onyx, recognized for his or her magnificence and deep historic resonance, making every bit distinctive. These stones, as soon as used to construct palaces, mosques, and gardens throughout the Islamic world, now turn into sculptural vessels for his or her candles. Scents embody orange blossom from Damascus to Bedouin oud and rose from Makkah, capturing fragrances that unlock nostalgic recollections for a lot of within the area.
‘Noorah’ carpet by Iwan Maktabi X Blu Architects
(Picture credit score: Iwan Maktabi X Blu Architects)
Lebanese carpet creator Iwan Maktabi has teamed up with Yasser Kaaki of Blu Architects and Mansoojat Basis to develop the ‘Libas’ assortment. The collection of creative carpets pays homage to Saudi Arabia’s wealthy textile heritage and conventional clothes, a lot of that are not worn by trendy society, but proceed to be deeply cherished inside native communities. The ‘Noorah’ carpet, a surprising black, pink and orange wall-hanging piece, is impressed by the Mutaffat Thobe, a Najd conventional costume of Saudi Arabia, right here reinterpreting the cuts, patterns, color codes and ornamental embroidery discovered on the clothes into the carpet designs.
‘Lampada Stele’ by Arnaldo Pomodoro for Venini
(Picture credit score: Venini)
‘Lampada Stele’ is a group of lamps designed by Italy’s Arnaldo Pomodoro in 2002 for Venini, whose nice complexity had prevented its manufacturing till now. The work reinterprets archaic monuments by way of an summary and modern language, remodeled right into a luminous work that mixes sculptural bronze with the transparency of Venini glass. The sunshine, subtle by the sandblasted floor, creates a ravishing ambient glow, with a triangular sample adorning the glass stele (or pillar) that echoes historical structure.
‘Enlace’ by Trame X Aranda/Lasch and Maison Louis Drucker
(Picture credit score: TRAME)
This new challenge introduced by Moroccan-born, Paris-based Trame in collaboration with Aranda/Lasch and Maison Louis Ducker is an modern assortment of generative bistro-style chairs. Reimagining the long-lasting Parisian cane café chair, the challenge weaves collectively algorithmic design – impressed by symmetry, tessellation and infinite repetition present in Islamic geometric decoration – and French heritage craftsmanship. By a easy app, folks can design a customized chair, utilizing the algorithm developed by Aranda/Lasch, which generates distinctive digital patterns and hues which might be hand-woven by Maison Ducker’s grasp artisans. The challenge, which exemplifies the intersections of craft and know-how, provides a recent tackle a timeless piece of furnishings.
‘Desert Drop’ by Karim+Elias
(Picture credit score: Karim+Elias)
Lebanese duo Karim+Elias (Karim Tamerji and Elias El Hage) introduced the ‘Desert Drop’ espresso desk on the honest, which explores the fundamental relationship between sand and glass. Created from UAE sand utilizing the pair’s signature rammed-earth approach, the desk encompasses a melted sheet of glass fashioned on prime of the three desert rock ‘drops’, meant to imitate the fluid-like traits and color of oasis waters. A collection of matching wall lights and vases has additionally been launched, constructed from the identical sand-based materials, with pastel blue and pink variations, as a substitute of the pure sandy tones, additionally out there.
