Downtown Design, the most important event for creativity in the Middle East presents its 8th edition, from 8 to 12 November 2021 in the Dubai Design District (d3). Five days instead of the usual four, coordinated with Dubai Design Week and Expo Dubai.
The new aspects include sections on furniture, lighting, bathrooms and kitchens, materials and finishes, accessories and upholstered furnishings, each with its own campaigns to promote brands. Not just products, but also emerging talents: the Downtown Editions are back, focusing on limited editions by young or acclaimed designers and groups, along with the Country Pavilions to narrate the crafts prowess of different nations each year, the talks and workshops with architects and creatives who are influential on a regional and international level, the exhibitions, and the Connect program for B2B contacts, establishing dialogue between brands and professionals.
After having successfully experimented in 2020 with a hybrid format, Downtown Design will come back with a physical event and an exhibition, hosting face-to-face meeting, with protagonists and visitors not only from the Middle East but also from Africa, Europe and Asia, and it will be combined with a digital show to reach an audience all over the world. An opportunity to prolong visibility and multiplying interactions.
“Downtown Design has always been much more than a typical design fair,” say its organizers. “It offers the design industry in the Middle East a sense of community, an annual focal point in which to gather and to discover new collections, to reconnect with colleagues and to establish meaningful relations. Talking with our architects and interior designers, we have discovered that they are eager to return to personal interactions and to revive that sense of humanity that is the true fulcrum of design. This feeling is reinforced by the Covid-19 vaccination program in the United Arab Emirates, by the positive developments in diplomatic relations with neighbors, and by the launch of Expo Dubai which comes a few weeks prior to the opening of Downtown Design 2021. Since the fair coincides with the Expo, we can’t wait to welcome designers and design lovers from all over the world.”
