Do not miss these design challenges at the 2022 Tanween festival in Saudi Arabia

Set in the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra)  in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, Tanween’s theme of ‘Collaborate to Create’ addresses the need for creative collaborations between cultures, using nature and technology. Bringing together the country’s creative community, the programme features a series of challenges that promote design thinking and innovation in order to produce practical design solutions to real-world issues, pairing emerging creatives with  knowledge partners.

Here are some of the challenges not to miss:

Graphic Design: Al Khobar Al Shamalia Identity Challenge

Set in Al Khobar’s historic neighborhood which is central to the identity of the city, Al Shamalia has become a focus for investment and regeneration efforts. This challenge asks participants to create a new visual identity for the district – one that celebrates its unique character, balancing the old and the new, while resolving the need for new and improved signage and way-finding.

Architecture and Design: Cardboard Pavilion Challenge

Free of the functional, technical and material constraints often associated with more permanent buildings, pavilions are the ideal opportunity for material, conceptual and structural experimentation. By creating  spaces where people can enjoy themselves, socialise and interact with their environment, pavilions allow architects and designers to test big ideas on a smaller scale. The goal of this challenge was to encourage architects and interior designers to create a sustainable, demountable and ‘iconic’ structure that would become a traveling landmark using a single material – cardboard.

Product Design: Ablution Ergonomics Challenge

Wudu is the ritual act of physical and spiritual cleansing performed before prayer for Muslims worldwide. The Ablution Ergonomics challenge asks emerging creatives to devise an innovative and more user-focused design solution for wudu that looks to a future in which mosques are not only more inclusive but also increasingly sustainable.

 Fashion Design: Biotech Fashion Challenge

Overproduction, overconsumption and the rise of fast, disposable fashion are not only environmentally harmful but contribute to entrenching social inequality, and have long been challenges facing the fashion industry. This challenge invites designers to create a distinct garment that explores the potential of new biomaterials, digital fabrication techniques and business models, with the aim of creating a more sustainable future for the industry, consumers and the planet.

Interactive Design: AR Artwork Challenge

This year, Tanween invited artists, designers and developers to explore the concept of migration through the medium of a limited-edition artist’s prints that combines traditional media with augmented reality (AR). Inspired by Ithra’s latest landmark exhibition, Hijrah: In the Footsteps of the Prophet, which celebrates the Prophet’s journey from Makkah to Madinah, the challenge welcomes interpretations of migration in its broadest sense – physical, mental and spiritual.

For more on Ithra, Tanween and the Tanween Challenges, visit www.ithra.com.