Every November, d3 stops being the place you drive past on the way to somewhere else. For one week it’s the most interesting few blocks in the city, and this is the last weekend to see it. Here’s how we’d spend it.
GO TO D3 FOR THE INSTALLATIONS, BEFORE THEY COME DOWN
The best part of Design Week costs nothing and is mostly outdoors. Walk the district in the late afternoon, when the heat lets up and the light goes soft. Start with Three Gardens and a Room, this year’s Urban Commission by Dubai-based NAO Architects: a run of garden rooms built from shade, foliage and filtered light, designed to make you slow down. Then find Rasha Saffarini’s Taqleem, which takes the Emirati practice of palm trimming and turns it into somewhere to sit, and CHATAI 2.0, a timber structure by Nikken Sekkei and SOBOKUYA that brings Japanese craftsmanship to a Dubai pavement. Go after four, stay for sunset, and don’t rush it.
Where: Dubai Design District (d3)
When: Until Sunday 8 November, 10am - 10pm
dubaidesignweek.ae | @dubaidesignweek
GO TO THE UAE DESIGNER EXHIBITION FOR THE PEOPLE MAKING THINGS HERE
If you only see one exhibition this weekend, make it this one. Under the theme Inherited Futures, with architect and designer AlZaina Lootah as this year’s design collaborator, UAE-based designers look at what we’ve been handed (materials, rituals, old ways of making) and what to do with it now. It’s the most local thing at Design Week, and the part we’d send a visiting friend to first. Take note of the names. You’ll be seeing them again.
Where: Dubai Design District (d3)
When: Until Sunday 8 November
dubaidesignweek.ae | @dubaidesignweek
GO TO DOWNTOWN DESIGN FOR THE BANANA
Not everything at the fair is serious. Somewhere between the gingham floors and the polka-dot rugs, there’s a banana the size of a sofa, and it sets the tone nicely. From there, head for the Memphis Milano exhibit: clashing colour, strange shapes, and furniture that still looks like it’s arguing with you forty years on. It’s the movement that made design allowed to be funny, and you can see its fingerprints all over the fair. Go Saturday afternoon. Sunday closes early.
Where: d3 Waterfront, Dubai Design District
When: Friday and Saturday 12pm - 8pm, Sunday 12pm - 6pm
Price: From AED 80
downtowndesign.com | @downtowndesign
GO TO THE DESERT FOR A SPIN CLASS AT SUNRISE
Saturday’s best start is forty-five minutes on a bike with nothing in front of you but dunes. Crank, the homegrown spin studio, is back at Al Maha for a second year, taking its bikes outside for two early classes in the conservation reserve. It’s cool, quiet, and the light is doing its best work. Afterwards there’s breakfast at Al Diwaan, and if you’ve got nowhere to be, the full-day option adds lunch, the pool and the spa. Spaces are limited, so book tonight.
Where: Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa, Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve
When: Saturday 7 November, 7am–7:45am or 8am–8:45am
Price: AED 390 with breakfast; AED 800 for the full day with lunch, pool and spa
crank-fit.com | @crank.uae
GO TO AL WASL FOR JEWELLERY YOU’LL WANT TO SEE UP CLOSE
Most jewellery shopping happens under bright mall lights with someone hovering. This is the opposite. For two days, the Seddiqi Jewellery Show takes over a villa on Al Wasl Road, and this year it’s built around light and reflection, so the pieces change as you walk through the rooms. More than twenty houses are showing, from the big European names to the UAE designers we’d actually go for: Ayesha Bin Hendi and Noora Shawqi, both of whom you can meet in person. There are lounges and food, and nobody’s rushing you. Saturday is the last day, so register before you leave the house.
Where: L’Ambassade Villa, 1001 Al Wasl Road
When: Saturday 7 November, 12pm–10pm
Price: Free, registration required
www.seddiqi.com | @seddiqi_uae
GO TO CYRANO FOR APERITIVO THAT TURNS INTO DINNER
Anyone who’s spent a summer in Beirut already knows the name. Now Cyrano has opened in City Walk, and it works the way the original does: you come in for one drink at golden hour, and you’re still there when the record changes and the room fills up. Go for aperitivo, when the plates start going round. Order the padrón peppers and the harissa feta for the table, then let the evening decide whether you’re staying for the lobster linguine. The wine list is the serious kind, and the cocktails stick to the classics. It’s the Lebanese way of doing a night out, now on our side of the map.
Where: City Walk, Dubai
When: 4pm - 1:30am
cyranodubai.com | @cyranodubai
GO TO AKARI FOR THE OPPOSITE OF EVERYONE ELSE’S WEEKEND
When the whole city is out doing everything at once, the smartest move is to do nothing for an hour. Book a recovery session at AKARI, where the room does half the work: limewashed walls, warm wood, soft light, and not a piece of plastic in sight. Lie back for red light therapy, let the compression boots deal with a weekend of walking, or try a hypoxia-hyperoxia session if you want to leave feeling sharper than you came in. Finish with something from the Brain Bar, like a collagen infusion or an adaptogenic blend, and take a few minutes before you check your phone. You’ll come out of it calmer than anyone you know this weekend.
Where: AKARI, One Central
When: 10am - 6pm (Sunday closed)
askari-wellness.com | @akariwellness
GO TO UNUSUAL FOR THE COFFEE AFTER
Stay in One Central for coffee at UNUSUAL, the café inside 528 Haus, an Emirati design house. The room is all mineral surfaces, warm timber and sculptural furniture: Emirati without leaning on heritage clichés. The coffee changes with the seasons, there’s ceremonial matcha if you’d rather, and the current Eastbound campaign has brought rare one-of-one pieces from Thailand, South Korea and Japan into the house. Every drink comes with a small card that asks you a question instead of handing you a quote. We’d go Sunday morning, alone, and actually answer it.
Where: 528 Haus, One Central
When: Friday 7am - 12am | Saturday - Sunday 8:30am - 12am
@theunusualae
GO TO ABU DHABI FOR PILATES WITH THE GIRAFFES
Every so often, a fitness class comes along that you’d do just for the story. This is one of them. The Burn Room has moved its Sunday morning session to Emirates Park Zoo, so you’ll be stretching on a mat while a giraffe leans over the fence to watch. Make a day of it: leave Dubai at seven, stretch, have breakfast, then drop by the studio’s first birthday that afternoon for matcha, a DJ and a free 20-minute session if your legs still work. It’s the one people will ask you about on Monday.
Where: Emirates Park Zoo, Abu Dhabi
When: Sunday 8 November, 9am
@burnroom.ae