By Marie Claire Maison Arabia
AlUla Design Award 2025 Opens Global Call: Craftsmanship, Heritage and Innovation Converge in “The Ingenuity of the Human Hand”
In AlUla — a landscape carved by wind, time, and human ingenuity — design has always begun with the hand. As the AlUla Design Award returns with its fourth edition, the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) extends a global call to designers to explore precisely that: the human hand as tool, archive, and storyteller. The open call runs until 28 November 2025, inviting applications in both fashion and product design.
More than a competition, the AlUla Design Award has evolved into an international platform that connects designers and artisans with the cultural, material, and ecological rhythms of AlUla. The 2025 edition embraces Saudi Arabia’s Year of Handicrafts, spotlighting the ways in which traditional making can inspire contemporary innovation.
“We celebrate the stories shaped by human hands,” says Hamad Alhomiedan, Director of Arts & Creative Industries at RCU. “This year’s award honors the mastery of craftsmanship and the ingenuity that begins before an idea is even formed. Design, at its best, preserves heritage while imagining futures that keep it alive.”
Theme 2025: The Ingenuity of the Human Hand
From the rose-gold tombs hand-carved two millennia ago to plaster motifs, woven textiles, and embroidered talismans, AlUla’s material culture is a living archive. This edition invites designers to reinterpret these craft traditions not as historical artefacts but as adaptable vocabularies that can shape tomorrow’s heritage — especially within a sustainable and environmentally responsible framework.
Selected finalists will prototype their projects with Arts AlUla support, travel to AlUla for the awards ceremony, and receive global press visibility. Winners in each category will see their work produced and retailed through AlUla Cultural Retail.
A Global Jury with Cultural Reach
This year’s jury reinforces the award’s rising international profile, bringing together voices that shape global design discourse:
- Guillaume Houzé — CEO of Image & Innovation at Galeries Lafayette Group; President of Lafayette Anticipations; patron of the arts and founder of Motier Ventures.
- Yoko Choy — Design journalist and China Editor of Wallpaper**; a cultural connector between Eastern and Western creative worlds.
- Arnaud Morand — Head of Arts & Creative Industries at AFALULA; independent curator engaged with global contemporary art and design scenes.
- Ahmad Angawi — Saudi artist and designer known for his work preserving and reinterpreting mangour, leading Angawi Studio and Zawiya 97.
- Hind AlRawaf — Arts & Culture Production and Trading Manager at RCU, leading major cultural and creative programmes across the region.
Together, they represent the intersection of culture, craftsmanship, and contemporary practice — a reflection of AlUla’s own identity as a crossroads.
AlUla: A Living Design Laboratory
At once ancient and emergent, AlUla has become a site where heritage and experimentation coexist. Designers who engage with its landscape encounter a space that is both muse and material laboratory — a place where vernacular aesthetics and sustainable thinking inspire new creative languages.
Through initiatives like the AlUla Design Award, Arts AlUla continues to build a sustainable cultural economy, support emerging talent, and deepen international exchange — reinforcing AlUla as a global hub for design grounded in history yet oriented toward the future.
Key Dates:
• Call for entries: 17 October – 28 November 2025
• Finalists announced: December 2025
• Exhibition & Award Ceremony: 23 January 2026
Eligibility:
Open worldwide to professional designers in fashion design and product design. Submissions must be original, sustainable, and rooted in the theme The Ingenuity of the Human Hand.
