Arab World Design Award - Nominees 2024

Hadi Abou Hamdan

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Transbollard, November 2022, Liban

Hadi Abou Hamdan, architect, received his Master of Architecture degree from the University of the Holy Spirit in Kaslik in 2018. In 2020, after the devastating August 4 explosion in Beirut, Hadi felt a strong urge to use his architectural skills to make a positive impact on people’s lives and the country. Recently, Hadi embarked on a new chapter by setting up his own design studio, focusing on making a positive impact on the planet. Here he explores product design and recycling, creating innovative urban furniture made from recycled materials. His vision is to revolutionize urban spaces and promote positive change through his sustainable creations.

Abdulrahman Al Muftah

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Qatar

Abdulrahman Al Muftah is a multidisciplinary Qatari designer whose work is characterized by nature, innovation, conceptuality and a deep connection to the intangible Arabian culture. Al Muftah studied interior design at Parsons School of Design and Design Entrepreneurship at Virginia Commonwealth University and is pursuing his Phd in Humanities and Social Sciences. He has worked with design for over five years as a product and graphic designer. During his career, Al Muftah has collaborated with numerous Qatari brands, such as Heenat Salma farm, where he published his first book, Firestation Air 7, the Formm collection for Beyman, Crafting Spaces at M7 2023, Watering the Desert Exhibition at Yuz Museum Shanghai and Arab Design now at the Doha Design Biennale.

Latifa Alkhayat & Maryam Aljomairi

gerdastudio

Sweating assets, May 2023, Bahrain

Sweating Assets is a design research project exploring extreme heat and humidity conditions and current expectations of comfort in Bahrain. The research focused on different scales, from the drop of water to the city. The experiential exhibition is a choreography of temperature, humidity and condensation within the spatial framework of an earth landscape, guided by an ambient sound piece that draws on the disquieting voice of the air conditioner, as well as the island's endangered ecologies. It conveys the pervasive conditions and experiences of life on the island. Complementing the importance of climate, an appeal is made for the collection and redirection of condensate reserves to wetlands and agricultural areas in need of replenishment.

Mai Ashmawy

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Phi Bench, January 2023, Egypt

The PHI Bench is a multifunctional piece of furniture inspired by the iconic Philae Temple of Egypt. The bench design is minimal yet versatile. The simple silhouette of the leg and armrest together resonates the temple’s pylon geometric form; forming a structural cast aluminum frames with slight curves that gives it a soft appearance. Furthermore, the cross sections of the bench also embrace the powerful form of the temple pylon whose the wooden slats of the seat reflect the top edges. The innovative armrest placement offers different functional choices. This versatility, coupled with its minimalist design, makes the bench a perfect addition to various settings.

Laïla Blaibel

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Noyau sensoriel, June 2022, Lebanon - Morocco

The project, “Noyau sensoriel”, accompanies the daily lives of blind people. It’s a wall-integrated structure comprising all the functional components of a bedroom. This project takes advantage of all the qualities of wood to reassure and envelop the visually impaired. It also has a universal application, inviting sighted people to awaken their senses through the qualities of wood.

Ghali Bouayad

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Postdigital ornamented architecture is not ornamented, 2021, Morocco

The wood pavilion project is the physical outcome of a practice-based doctoral research where Ghali Bouayad introduces a theory showcasing how ornament and the postdigital could play a great role in reconciling and reconnecting ornament craft culture to objects, to structure and to architecture; and speculate they can come together under the same narrative addressing the function of the sculptural-object matter, aesthetics and society, spatial quality and technology. In this single-handedly materialized 1:1 scale wood architecture exhibited at the Tokyo Geidai Museum, a Japanese ornamental pattern becomes a host for human activity and is used to organize space. When translated to a three- dimensional object and scaled-up, this ornament achieves both a structural and an architectural function. 

Nabil Farhat & Rabih Koussa

Nader Moussally

Magma plastique, May 2024, Lebanon

Magma Plastique, unveiled at We Design Beirut’s debut edition, is a micro-architecture primarily crafted from recycled plastic. Invited by Plastc Lab to design the installation and curate the exhibition, architects Rabih Koussa and Nabil Farhat created Magma Plastique as a monumental expression of the climate crisis. The installation, prominently featured in the Materials Exhibition at the historic Abroyan Factory, offers a narrative rooted in the juxtaposition of decay and renewal. Once a bustling textile workshop, the factory’s revitalization as a cultural focal point echoes the transformation of the recycled materials in the installation.

Hassene Jeljeli

Hamza Bennour

Iron lamp, May 2022, Tunisia

Iron lamp is a local reinterpretation of a classic streetlamp imported and massively sold in Tunisia. The aim is to manufacture a monolithic lamp through the assembly of parts of the same material, involving both manual and industrial work. The idea is to ennoble the perforated steel sheet: a material infinitely recyclable, precise, and translucent but banalized in Tunisia. The light is diffused through several layers of the perforated sheet, providing maximum visual comfort. 

Karim + Elias

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From this earth, 2024, Saudi Arabia

Karim + Elias’s latest work contextually celebrates the city of Diriyah’s architectural craft of building with earth.  ‘From This Earth’ is composed of over 1,400 modular spheres; each individually hand-sculpted from locally sourced materials and stacked to compose a series of earthen ‘screens’. The porous surfaces act as a modern-day ‘mcharrabiyah’ — an ode to the city’s vernacular characteristics of triangular wind perforations and rooftop silhouettes. 

Zineb Kertane

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Bayt el Ma, 2024, Algeria - France

Bayt el Ma is a technical ceramic tile system that integrates water inlet and outlet systems into its design. It draws its inspiration from the decorative vocabulary of the Maghreb and the Middle East, simplifying it to make it more modern: tile motifs, but also taking up the symbolism of the Western fountain, which embodies power and wealth. This system doesn’t seek to hide or reinvent existing piping systems, but rather to put them back at the center and give them aesthetic value. By making use of the properties of tiles, this system makes them a technical element in the same way as pipes, in addition to being ornamental.

Samer Selbak

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Luffa Project, 2022, Palestine

Guided by a principle of sustainability, Samer Selbak used traditional natural dyeing processes in which pigments are extracted from different plants, and embraced its unexpected characteristics that produce unique and singular colors. He has developed the different stages of manipulating the raw Luffa material after long research, in which he mainly uses heat, pressure, humidity, and sewing. Luffa Project consists of two different objects: Saffeer, a pendant light, and Reef, a space divider. Both sculptural and functional, these pieces instill a sub-aquatic mystical presence into the space. 

CONFIRMED TALENT

Thomas Egoumenides

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Aš-Šārqia, 2024, Tunisia

Inspired by his installation at the last Sharjah Architecture Triennial, the collection “AšŠārqia” emerges from the unique alliance of two often underestimated materials: threaded rods, emblems of hardware, and thread spools, forgotten remnants of textile factories. Shaped by the designer’s hands, these materials metamorphose into a series of ethereal furniture, revealing their structure simply through their glass tops. “Aš-Šārqia” thus offers a sensitive and poetic interpretation of this union, where each piece seems sublimated by the marriage of aesthetics and functionality.

Makram el-Kadi, Iheb Guermazi, Ziad Jamaleddine and Beya Othmany

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Djerba, Prototype 366, January 2023, Tunisia

‘Djerba, Prototype 366’ is a one-to-one mosque, which reinterprets the typology of the Djerbian’s mosque within the context of the gallery space. The installation consists of the minimum tectonic elements of Djerba’s mosque, fabricated from cold rolled carbon steel plates: a standalone mihrab, a wash basin, and a seat. These emerge from a mount of Makkah basalt rocks measuring 90 centimeters in height and 5 meters in diameter. Circular in shape, this 17-cubic-meter volume of natural rocks serves as central object around which the visitor to mosque circumambulates when performing the necessary liturgical steps prior to prayer.

Abdel El Tayeb

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El Tayeb Nation, 2022, Sudan - Belgium

With EL TAYEB NATION, Abdel El Tayeb intends to promote the ancestral Sudanese heritage through a contemporary wardrobe. The country has a rich history of textile and garment coming from Antiquity and that are more than ever relevant today.Basketry and his family represent his main sources of inspiration. Basket weaving is a technique that was taught to me by his grandmothers in Sudan, in the town of Omdurman. It consists of weaving in a certain way dry palm leafs that can be dyed. Traditionally used in decoration, he tries with his brand to repurpose the technique as an embellishment. Basketry becomes with EL TAYEB NATION accessories such as Brancusi sculptural hats, shoes and bags. Basketry is also translated as an embroidery on garments made of fabric, or interpreted with knit. 

Najla El Zein

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Group of five, 2024, Lebanon - Netherlands

“Group of five” was developed for the second solo exhibition of Najla El Zein Opacity, transparency, and everything in between, at Friedman Benda Gallery in New York. The show reflects on one’s initial perceptions, misunderstandings, and the necessity to decipher the layers beneath, as truth often lies between the lines. The title of the exhibition represents the persistent quest’s artist for a deeper understanding of life’s intricacies. Fascinated by the crafting process of glass, stone and ceramic — all equally requiring a team of skilled craftsmen — emphasizes that the works do not spontaneously come to life. Rather, they require a collaborative effort where individuals engage in dialogue and establish deep connections. Manual work demands dedication, passion, and reflection, with each piece telling its own narrative within the multiple layers of creation.

Charles Kalpakian

Studio Unfolded

Cité, 2023, Lebanon - Armenia - Morocco

This mural, commissioned by Atelier 27 Paris for the Hôtel Royal Mansour in Casablanca, is a large-scale project that adds a contemporary dimension to the hotel’s renovation project.

This creation symbolizes the link between know-how and cultural heritage, reinforcing the hotel’s new identity. Part tactile cartography, part contemplative landscape, this monumental mural creates a scene in the lobby. It invites visitors to discover part of the art collection as soon as they arrive, capturing their imagination and wonder. In this artistic approach, it was crucial to rework traditional Moroccan forms by assembling them to evoke and blend craftsmanship and modernity. Brass, symbolizing Moroccan craftsmanship, blends harmoniously with aluminum, embodying modernity.

Niko Kapa

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AlUla Collection, January 2023, United Arab Emirates

Drawing from his Arabic background, Niko Kapa explores design’s ability to communicate cultural content, examining interface among traditions of craft with technology, advocating for the importance of our shared human heritage. Displaying personal engagement with historic legacy, he expresses affinity to cultural forms and processes with the belief that every material or technique underpins a particular history, which is both retrieved and expanded through own creative practice. Investigating how materiality shapes human experience, his work targets to raise awareness towards built environment in Middle East, while promoting sustainability through innovation as well as the cultural importance of design and craft.

Selma Lazrak

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Amud, 2024, Morocco - Germany

Selma Lazrak is an architect and product designer from Morocco and based in Munich, Germany. From object to architecture, her studio’s work is dedicated to exploring the interplay between design, identity & territory. Her meticulously handcrafted pieces, crafted from noble materials, pay homage to her heritage, personal history, and the natural essence of her diverse heritage. She combines state-of-the-art material processing technology with the precision of hand-finishing carried out by highly skilled craftsmen from the MENA region, pushing the boundaries of material experimentation.

Stéphanie Moussallem

Marco Pinarelli

Evasion, September 2022, Lebanon

Based in Beirut, Stéphanie Moussallem Design Studio is a multidisciplinary practice with a diverse portfolio of interior projects and furniture. Launched in 2015 by interior architect and product designer Stéphanie Moussallem to explore the evolving vision of contemporary culture, the studio is dedicated to improving the relationship between usability, ergonomics and style.

“Design is a tool to facilitate everyday life, by making the objects around us as practical and pleasant as possible.”

Wyssem Nochi

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Stray bullet. “l’Air de Beyrouth.”, 2023, Lebanon

Founded ON-OFF a design art gallery in 2005 - in Downtown, Beirut, Destroyed following the explosion of the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020. He worked as an independent consultant for several design and architecture and planning firms – developing research work on projects in urban design, architecture, heritage building restoration and preservation, interior design, furniture and product. Teaching architecture, design and art at the Lebanese American University. the American University of Beirut, the Université du Saint-Esprit, Kaslik.

T Sakhi

T SAKHI

Jurat, September 2022, Lebanon - Italy

Bearing resemblance to archaeological cinerary urns, unguentarium and other glass-blown objects placed in tombs as offerings in Ancient times, ’Jurat’ addresses the value of time on objects. The vessels playfully conjure the illusion of time travel presenting as objects excavated from another century but their contemporaneity is visible through their form and texture on closer inspection.

Conjuring textures of excavated eroded artefacts, T SAKHI were drawn to the rich history of glassblowing to determine the forms of this new collection. Made in Murano, the material’s epicentre of craft, the studio drew connections and shared knowledge of glassmaking between the Venetian lagoon where they reside and their own heritage, across the Mediterranean region, from Ancient Egypt to Lebanon. The studio sourced various types of metal waste including aluminum, brass and copper from surrounding factories and infused them within glass. The process consists of working with recycled metals in different states - powder, molten and chunks - and reacting them through different calibres of temperature within the glass.

ENTREPRENEURIAL TALENT

ANARCHITECT

Eva Saudargaite

The Serai Wing, April 2023, United Arab Emirates

The Serai Wing is a hotel of private rooms and suites located in the heart of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. This refurbished heritage property comprises two 1950s family homes, once the residences of pearl merchant Khaled bin Ibrahim. Design firm ANARCHITECT has uniquely transformed them into a contemporary boutique hotel that resonates with its surroundings.

It is an urban sanctuary in which to immerse oneself, a retreat designed to preserve the authenticity and culture of an important historical area of the United Arab Emirates. This transformative architectural work illustrates the importance of preservation, reimagining it as a modern destination for regional and international travelers.

Omar Chakil

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Egypt

After decorating private homes around the globe for nearly two decades, Omar started experimenting with limited edition objects and furniture. His first series exclusively made from raw Egyptian alabaster blocks sold out at Over The Counter’ gallery during Beirut’s 2018 design week and travelled with similar success to France, KSA, Italy and America. His work has been increasingly solicited by architects and galleries around the globe ever since.

Known for introducing Egyptian Alabaster into contemporary design, Omar also brought the concept of collectible design to Egypt. His pieces were featured in numerous exhibitions around the globe including Dubai Expo 2020, prestigious French auction house Piasa, MENART fair in Brussels, Le Salon in New York, traveling collectible fair Nomad in St Moritz and Venice, Carwan in Athens and a solo show in Cairo.

Aziza Chaouni

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Prototype affordable CEB anti-seismic house, March 2024, Morocco

Aziza Chaouni Projects (ACP) is a multi-disciplinary design firm based in Fez, Morocco. Founded in 2011 by Aziza Chaouni, an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Toronto, ACP specializes in sustainable architecture, landscape, urban design, and construction. Since its inception, ACP has completed numerous projects, including historic rehabilitation, adaptive reuse and new buildings, all developed hand in hand with stakeholder and local craftsmen/ craftswomen.

IBKKI

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Mujat, 2024, Algeria - France

IBKKI is the brainchild of two designer friends, Azel Aït Mokhtar and Youri Asantcheeff. Having met on the benches of a design school, they quickly nurtured the desire for a joint creative project, without yet being able to define it. After graduating, they met up again to carry out a trip they had promised themselves: a tour of Kabylia in Algeria, Azel’s parents’ homeland, where they met local craftsmen who invited them to discover their know-how and work in their workshops. Their first residency in Nabil’s pottery workshop lasted nine months. This long collaboration led them to question the traditional hierarchical relationship between designer-sponsor and artisan-supplier.

Joy Mardini & William Wehbe

Zeina Baroudi

Past echoes, May 2024, Lebanon

Founded by Joy Mardini and William Wehbe, BABYLON is an agency dedicated to celebrating and promoting creators from the Middle East and beyond. Joy Mardini and William Wehbe believe in the power of design collaboration to bridge cultural divides and bring people together. They are committed to identifying good opportunities for designers in their region, connecting them with global players and partners.

Abeer Seikaly

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Terroir, 2022, Jordania

Abeer Seikaly is a Jordanian-Palestinian interdisciplinary thinker and maker, who works across architecture, design, fine art, and cultural production. She founded Studio Abeer Seikaly in Amman, Jordan, in 2010. Abeer’s practice is grounded in ‘acts of memory’ journaling, documenting, archiving, & collecting. She weaves ‘narrative threads’ from these memories. Abeer draws inspiration from traditional knowledge in the Arab homeland. She views her practice as a social technology for cultural empowerment. She centers indigenous Bedouin practices, to recover the intimacy of handmaking. She travels to Jordan’s Badia (desert), where she engages in Bedouin women’s craftsmanship of textile weaving and tent making. In 2015, Abeer co-founded and co-directed Amman Design Week (ADW), a biennial initiative in Jordan that promotes local and regional design. In 2018, she established ālmamar, a cultural experience and residency program in Amman, Jordan.

Indjy Taher & Jaeyung Kwon - MUSEEUM

Farida Bustani

MUSEEUM, 2024, Egypt

For the Arab World Design Award 2024, MUSEEUM presents our holistic approach to the official gift shop at the Grand Egyptian Museum. This project honours the timelessness of ancient Egyptian art and craftsmanship, reinterpreted for the modern world. The collaboration of passionate individuals, including Egyptologists, illustrators, designers, artisans, and writers brought our vision to life. The Official Grand Egyptian Museum Shop Collection marks MUSEEUM’s inaugural curation directly inspired by the museum’s conceptual and visual themes. This project focuses on creating appealing, impactful products that are both functional and dedicated to preserving and celebrating our cultural heritage. Sales from these products directly benefit the GEM, with proceeds supporting local makers, non-profit organizations, and public institutions, both young and established designers, further fueling our effort to sustain the creative community in Egypt both culturally and economically.

Yasmine Sfar & Mehdi Kebaier

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A present from the past, 2024, Tunisia - France

The materials used in their creations come from the Sejnane region of Tunisia, and include sea rush, metal, palm wood and terracotta. These materials are transformed by local artisans to produce unique, durable objects that celebrate nature and Tunisian savoir-faire. Yasmine Sfar and Mehdi Kebaier embody a new generation of Tunisian designers committed to promoting craftsmanship. Through Tinja and Altin, they create expressive objects that tell stories and contribute to the recognition and sustainability of Tunisian craftsmanship. Their work illustrates the beauty and value of ancestral knowhow, while adapting it to the needs and aspirations of modern society.