Design Doha charts a path between traditional know-how and city life
· BehindLines newsroom
The second edition of Design Doha is announced for 5 November in Qatar, according to the biennial's website. Its program links the know-how of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia with contemporary creation. Exhibitions, installations in the city and talks are meant to explore how this knowledge is passed on and transformed. The exhibitions are announced to run until 31 January 2027.
The neighborhood as a ground for creation
Following a first edition in 2024, the biennial draws this year on Fereej Al Asmakh, which the organizers describe as one of Doha's oldest neighborhoods, between Souq Waqif, Al Najada and Msheireb. They count 61 historic houses there, and see the biennial as a way to activate the area.
The project goes beyond presenting objects: it also questions how they are made. The curatorial program raises in particular the question of where the knowledge used comes from, of recognition for the work, and of sharing the benefits with the communities that pass it on. These are the exhibition's intentions, whose effects will remain to be assessed after the opening.
Five projects for public space
A dispatch from the QNA agency, published by the Gulf Times on 20 October, presents five commissions intended for the neighborhood. They address water, materials, craft and ways of responding to the climate.
Among the announced projects are Salsabil, by Meriem Chabani and NEW SOUTH, Palm Construct, by Abdalla Almulla, and Cooling Pots, by Haitam Daoudi and Oscar Cruz (+.atelier). The other two are Shoreline, by platau, and Falajscape, by Studio By Three (Eugenio Fernandez and Victor Nouman). According to the same dispatch, an open call had been issued across the region: ten designers, architects and urban specialists had been shortlisted in 2025, ahead of this first stage of realization.
A calendar to read activity by activity
The associated university program illustrates the need to tell the events apart. VCUarts Qatar announces, as part of Tasmeem Doha, lectures on 5 and 7 November integrated into Design Doha. They are to address the transmission of knowledge between generations and its reinterpretation.
The institution states, however, that it has canceled the Tasmeem workshops and the discussion circle planned for 1 to 4 November, citing unforeseen circumstances. This cancellation concerns those specific activities; the same page keeps the announcement of the lectures. The biennial's calendar therefore does not mean that every activity originally proposed is maintained.