Dubai
Installation Art

Your work bridges architecture, photography, and product design. How do these disciplines influence and shape your creative process today? 

 

I think each of these practices have different values that influence my work. Architecture allows me to play with scale, and opens my eyes to so many industrial materials. Photography helps me with framing and setting spaces up. It helps when you want to ask yourself if a space is visually pleasing, and product design helps me focus on the details of any particular article. It’s more human-centric.

Many of your pieces balance practicality with a strong emotional presence. How do you approach this dialogue between function and feeling?  

 

The most important part of the pieces I like to design is the interactive aspect. I always ask myself how people are going to be able to interact with that particular product, and then through that interactivity, people start to develop a personal relationship with the objects they surround themselves with. The dialogue between function and feeling only happens when the end user is surrounding themselves with that piece.

Could you share an experience in which you faced significant challenges in bringing a creative idea to life? 

 

Each product our studio puts together has its own challenges. Whether it’s dealing with suppliers or challenging a material. It all depends on the form, and the kind of look we would like to achieve. For example, our product Coco was challenging because we had to figure out the weight and thickness of the material to have it sit the way that it does. It took almost a whole year of prototyping to get to the final product in the way you see it today. We must have dozens of 3D prints, just to test the way the seat would be sitting on the ground.

The design scene in the United Arab Emirates is gaining increasing international visibility. How do you perceive the evolution of Emirati design identity within this global conversation? 

 

The UAE has always been a global hub for so many different industries. I think that the evolution of the design identity here is going to develop in very interesting ways. There’s already so much that we’re experimenting with when it comes to form and function, and I think that the rest of the world is observing the UAE when it comes to design because we’re able to cater for so many different nationalities. We have approximately 200 of them residing in Dubai itself, and the way the design scene over here is going to develop is going to depend on the ways we learn from each other, as a melting pot for all of these countries.

“The
most
import
ant part
of the
pieces I
like to
design is
the
interact
ive
aspect.”

Looking ahead, what materials, themes, or directions are currently driving your practice, and where do you envision your work heading next? 

 

Our studio is looking at materials that are durable and fun, and we like to keep our design very light hearted. We find that people enjoy the things they have more when they’re not so serious. So I guess some themes that we want to carry out are happiness and versatility. We’ll keep designing in ways that bring us joy, and hope that our studio continues to grow at a super natural pace.