Arab Design Now 2026

Arab Design Now 2026 is the headline exhibition of Design Doha Biennial 2026, on view at Building i22 in Msheireb Downtown Doha from 5 November 2026 to 31 January 2027. Curated by Noura Al Sayeh, it brings together eighty-one designers and seventy-eight new commissions. Between them, the participants represent twenty-seven countries and more than fifteen disciplines, among them architecture, urbanism, furniture, product design, craft, sound and social design. The designs are shown with the processes and people behind them, including artisans and makers, alongside videos and photographs that the designers commissioned from audio-visual artists.

The exhibition gives the outcome of design and its process equal weight, and looks at the material intelligence within each practice. Its focus is design in the MENASA region and its diaspora. The commissioned films and photographs document places that include a textile landfill in Jordan, Nubian houses beside the Nile, the marshes of southern Iraq and Doha's cityscape. Abdulrahman Al Muftah presents an installation shown with a short documentary by Amal Al Muftah about the artisans involved in making it. Headings in the exhibition include Land and Agrarian Practices; Crafts, Technology and Community; and Belonging and Migrating. Five authors were commissioned to write on its themes, and one of the biennial's two bilingual publications is dedicated to the exhibition.

Samer Selbak, a Palestinian designer based in Paris, works with natural materials including luffa, and took part in the first Arab Design Now in 2024. Shaikha Al Sulaiti is a Qatari designer based in Doha. Both are on the Design Doha Prize 2026 shortlist in the Craft category. Dima Srouji takes part with Hooda Shawa.

Design Doha is a design biennial set up by Qatar Museums in 2024. Its Director is Fahad Al Obaidly and its Artistic Director Glenn Adamson. The 2026 edition has its hub in Fereej Al Asmakh, where heritage houses and courtyards serve as venues, while Arab Design Now is staged at Building i22. This is the second Arab Design Now: the first, curated by Rana Beiruti, ran at M7 in Msheireb from 24 February to 5 August 2024. The first three days, 5 to 7 November 2026, are the biennial's Opening Days.