Tanween Concludes After Eight Transformative Years, Reborn as Ithra Design Week from 2026

Dhahran, Nov 2025 : The eighth edition of Tanween, the flagship annual design event of the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), concluded this week with a landmark announcement: beginning in 2026, the programme will enter a new era under the name Ithra Design Week. The rebranding marks the culmination of eight years of growth during which Tanween evolved into one of the region’s most influential incubators for designers, ideas, and new modes of creative expression.

Announcing the transition during the closing ceremony on Saturday evening, Ithra Programs Manager Noura Al-Zamil described the moment as a decisive step forward. “After eight years of Tanween, Ithra Design Week marks a new chapter in fostering creativity and collaboration—bringing together designers, communities, and ideas to expand our impact in Saudi Arabia and beyond,” she said.

A Six-Day Celebration of Ideas, Creativity, and Public Engagement

“Tanween 2025” unfolded over six dynamic days, offering a rich and diverse programme that highlighted design’s growing influence across Saudi Arabia’s cultural and urban landscape. The event featured:

• 7 hands-on workshops
• 10 dialogue sessions with regional and international speakers
• 8 curated exhibitions
• A four-track design hackathon
• Public programmes and guided tours co-developed with Khobar Municipality

The tours connected visitors to public art installations, architectural landmarks, and urban spaces shaped by human-centered design—expanding Tanween’s presence beyond Ithra’s walls and embedding creativity directly into the city’s fabric.

Celebrating the Winners of the “Design for the 90%” Challenges

A major highlight of the closing ceremony was the announcement of the winners of the Tanween 2025 Design Challenges, a competition aimed at addressing the needs of communities underserved by traditional design processes. This year’s theme, “Design for the 90%,” encouraged participants to create solutions targeting global human necessities—affordability, accessibility, and social impact.

Global Impact Challenge – (Cosmic)

Mariam Al-Khateeb – Walaa Sharaf – Zeina Myatt – Arwa Omar – Farah Al-Kurdi

Product Design Challenge – (Haseelah)

Fatimah Bazroon – Myriam Al-Qarah – Abdullah Al-Dhuhailan – Reda Al-Ali

Urban Spaces Challenge – (Team One)

Abdulrahman Al-Shahri – Sarah Al-Hadhli – Naif Ajaji – Saif Al-Naimee – Alexandra

Visual Communication Challenge – (Hayy)

Zaid Sbeitan – Rahaf Qureshi – Abrar Abu Sham – Mohammed Al-Tihami – Raneem Al-Radadi

Ithra confirmed that the winning prototypes will undergo further development and will serve as foundational pillars for the inaugural Ithra Design Week in 2026, ensuring a seamless continuation of Tanween’s legacy.

Eight Years of Themes That Shaped a Creative Movement

Since its inception, Tanween has introduced annual themes that challenged design assumptions and mapped the evolution of Saudi Arabia’s expanding creative culture. These included:

Disruption – Play – The New Next – Tools – Collaboration – Range – Falling Up – Design the Unseen

Together, these themes created a creative timeline—one that documented how audiences, designers, and institutions in the Kingdom began to rethink design not merely as a craft, but as:

• A lens for understanding the world
• A method for problem-solving
• A platform for experimentation
• A catalyst for public engagement

This accumulated journey now leads to a larger, more globally aligned leap: Ithra Design Week, a platform designed to amplify creative exchange at the regional and international levels.

Expanding Local and Global Partnerships

This year’s edition also strengthened Ithra’s network of collaborators from across the region and the world. Key partners included:

• Gulf International Bank – Strategic Partner
• Architecture and Design Commission
• Retal Company
• Al Majdouie (GENESIS) – Logistics Partner

International creative partners added further depth to the programme, including:

• Dubai Design Week
• Isola Global
• Additional global design organisations and creative groups

These partnerships reinforced Ithra’s positioning as a leading global platform in the fields of design, creativity, and arts—and as a hub for ideas that bridge local identity with global innovation.

A Gathering of Visionaries Shaping the Region’s Creative Future

The closing programme featured influential regional leaders, including:

• Natasha Carella, Director of Dubai Design Week
• Gabriele Cavallaro, CEO and Co-Founder of Isola Design Group
• Fahad Al-Obeidi, Design Director at the Doha Biennial
• Bisher Tabba, Co-Director of Amman Design Week

Moderated by Shahed Al-Wazzani, Tanween Program Lead, the panel highlighted the shared creative ecosystem that now spans the Arab world—a network increasingly interlinked, collaborative, and shaped by the growing design energy in Saudi Arabia.

Toward Ithra Design Week: A New Era for Saudi Creativity

As Tanween concludes after eight transformative years, it leaves behind a legacy of ideas, collaborations, and design awareness that has reshaped the cultural narrative of the Kingdom.

Its successor, Ithra Design Week 2026, will build on that foundation with a broader, more ambitious vision—one grounded in the belief that:

• Design is not merely aesthetics but a way of living.
• It is the language of the future.
• It is a tool for building more human-centered cities.
• It is a pathway to deeper innovation and more resilient societies.

The transition signifies more than a name change—it marks the arrival of a new platform where Saudi Arabia’s design community will not just participate in the global conversation, but actively shape it.

(The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)