Doha Design District (DDD) will promote local designers and expose them to international best practices to become the regional design hub, Shaikha Al Sulaiti, the District’s manager, has said.
Set for launch in the first quarter of 2022, DDD would be home to galleries, showrooms, creative services, stores, and more. Located in Msheireb Downtown Doha, the new District offers a blank canvas that designers can make their own.
“Doha Design District is dedicated to the creative community. We are not focusing on one specific specialisation but more towards anyone interested in art and design,” Al Sualiti said.
“I do think that we have a robust scene and really good designers. The design community is growing, and there’s a lot of talent for sure. There’s a lot of creativity, and I can see a lot of hard work with the younger generation. I believe this would help us towards our mission which is to be the regional design hub,” she added.
Al Sulaiti, the founder of Designer Studio, a Doha-based creative practice specialising in luxury residential and hospitality interiors, said that despite the District’s primary focus on design, it would also accommodate other sectors, including fashion, distributed across the building.
“On the ground floor of DDD, we have the luxury retail, which will focus mainly on furniture and lighting and things related to interior decoration. We do have some offerings for fashion as well. Our activities until the end of the year would heavily focus on luxury fashion.
“The first floor would be dedicated to makerspace and 3D printing facility. The ground floor would be promoting international luxury brands to raise awareness as well as the quality and design.”
Al Sualiti hailed the growing art scene in Qatar, which has recorded significant international exposure in the last decade. Al Sulaiti emphasised that with the burgeoning art culture, DDD has the supportive element to make Doha a design hub.
“The art scene has been booming over the past few years. I do believe that Doha is the leader in the art world in the region. We do have the right elements to make Doha a design hub. We have a very strong programme that would focus mainly on educating both the public and the design community to the international level that the brands currently work towards. We have a lot of things that we are planning, and they are very exciting,” she said.
Meanwhile, DDD is hosting various activities in the ongoing Shop Qatar 2021. Several workshops and pop-up shows involving local and international talents are being hosted in the District.
