Design Doha's Second Edition Lands in November
Design Doha Biennial's second edition opens November 5-7, 2026, with its public programme continuing through the season across Doha Design District, Msheireb Downtown Doha and a scatter of additional sites around the city.
The event, run by Qatar Museums under the patronage of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, spans more than 20 venues and exhibitions, anchored by the headline show Arab Design Now 2026, curated by Noura Al Sayeh-Holtrop. That exhibition brings together new work from 81 designers, including 78 new commissions and a run of commissioned films, pulling from across the Gulf, Levant and North Africa. Names worth watching include Talin Hazbar, Amina Agueznay, Omar Chakil and Salima Naji, a lineup that leans hard into craft, material research and regional storytelling. Around that centrepiece sits a Public Design Commissions strand, the Design Doha Prize, and a full Forum of talks and workshops.
This edition is built around the theme “Knowledge Takes Form,” positioning design as something passed down through landscapes, materials, craft traditions and language. That framing runs through the rest of the programme too: the Design Doha Prize 2026 spans four categories including craft, product design, furniture design and emerging talent. There's also a Forum hosted at Barahat Al Asmakh for talks and public discussion, and Design Doha Connect, a networking strand aimed squarely at turning the ideas on display into actual business relationships.
