DownTown Design Dubai

Desin fair “Downtown Design”, now in its second year, is testimony to a fresh interest in this world, which for Dubai may bring a new business opportunity.

Now in its second year, “Downtown Design Dubai” is an annual event in the United Arab Emirates. As Dubai gears up for Expo 2020, it is flaunting its economic success and global cosmopolitism – you may be here but you could be in Houston.

“Downtown Design”, Dubai 28-31 ottobre 2014 — “Downtown Design”, Dubai 28-31 October 2014

It is also seeking progressive affirmation on the contemporary-culture front and a small but telling design fair was held on 28-31 October at the foot of Burj Khalifa, yet another internationally styled example of the race to construct the tallest building and a sign of a country flexing the muscles of its economic power to the world as it awaits the construction of the new and ambitious Opera House.

Dubai has grown rapidly over the last 20 years, applying the rules of a global expansion that has clear-cut urban models. In developing and emerging countries, the “normal” city is still a car-friendly one with a design based on the road and traffic system, service buildings and tall apartment blocks in the “city” – or rather downtown – but enclosed private villas in the residential suburbs.

Luxury is the name of the game, accessed on different scales via an Arab-American pastiche. Before the appearance of its new vertical icon, Dubai already stood out on the scenario of new world capitals thanks to property development that defied the sea with the colossal undertakings of the artificial Palm 1 and 2 islands, a third is underway, and the currently less successful adventure of the artificial “The World” archipelago. Unlike other conurbations in the Arab area and the United Arab Emirates, in particular, Dubai does not owe its fortune and wealth to oil but to property development, to the creation of a financial centre and to its appeal to a growing worldwide tourism type: one of its many malls is one of the largest in the world and comes complete with an ice rink. Every brand has a commercial space here and the hospitality and amusement offer is up to international standards “familiar” the world over. The public spaces and promenades are shaded by palms and cooled by pools in which the water is a mirage; and the bus shelters are air-conditioned, a reminder that what is now a city was, until a few decades ago, desert.

Dubai will host Expo 2020 and is readying itself for this major event in several ways: one is to found its new cultural vocation; the imminent creation of the new, large and people-friendly “Dubai Design District” will be a catalyst of the future Dubai and is one of the projects showcased by the fair. This is why the magic word – design – in its broadest and equally vague meaning has become a buzzword of contemporary Dubai and DownTown Design, now in its second year, is testimony to a fresh interest in this world, which may bring a new business opportunity. It is no coincidence that the director of this small but ambitious fair is Italian: Cristina Romelli Gervasoni directed the event for the second time. In launching the “Original Design” theme, she wanted, on the one hand, to attract contributions, projects and products from international companies capable of dialoguing with the demands of the Arab culture. At the same time, she sought to raise awareness and educate people about design, and steer the growing demand for “necessary luxury”.

Mario Bellini attended as the leading testimonial of the finest Italian design, flanked by other exponents of the Italian and international design system, including Valerio Castelli and Aldo Cibic. The response from the large cultural melting pot that is the Dubai public – many residents are foreigners – was hugely positive and the audience was fascinated by Bellini’s recommendation to construct a city rather than a mass of buildings in between large road infrastructures.

Two exhibitions at the design fair deserve a special mention. The first was that by the Royal College of Arts, which also sent headline speaker Ab Rogers. Via work conducted on new technologies and the immaterial and cross-disciplinary dimension of design by two recent graduates, the London school put itself forward as the reference institute for design education, destined to grow in these regions. The second exhibition, curated by Tunisian “patron” Lamia Ben Ayed, founder of the Musk and Amber Gallery and Harper’s Bazaar Interiors, is a small one “taking the pulse” of the design product and furnishing in the regions, from Maghreb to the Arabian Peninsula. The shortlist of designers for the “Best Emerging Regional Designer” award also cast a spotlight on the eclectic cultural milieu in which designers in this complex and rich geographical and cultural area develop. Acting as a backdrop was Castiglioni’s Arco lamp, hovering in the air as a still unsurpassable presence.

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