^{Interview by Allegra Salvadori}

During NOMAD Abu Dhabi, we interviewed Christelle Bassila, Founder & CEO of The A/P Room, and Elie Khouri, Chairman of Atelio, to explore how the region’s first gallery bridging historic and contemporary collectible design is reshaping the Middle East’s cultural landscape. Their insights reveal a new design vocabulary emerging at the intersection of global mastery and regional authorship.

As the first gallery in the region to unite historic and contemporary collectible design, how does The A/P Room plan to stand out in an increasingly crowded cultural landscape?

Christelle Bassila: The region has extraordinary collectors and a genuine appetite for culture, yet the bridge between global collectible design and the Middle East’s own creative energy has been missing. The A/P Room was created to fill that space, to bring global excellence and regional authorship onto equal ground. Our distinction lies in the way we curate. We see design history as a living conversation, not a linear timeline. A Joaquim Tenreiro chair can sit beside a Rogan Gregory sculptural table and a Jane Yang D’Haene ceramic, revealing shared devotion to material, gesture, and expression across eras and continents.

At The A/P Room, collectors encounter a layered landscape: mid-century masters, contemporary voices redefining form, and regional designers like Roham shamekh, Aline Hazarian, Sayar & Garibeh, Georges Mohasseb,  whose presence is central to our mission of elevating Middle Eastern talent globally.

A new visual language is emerging in the region, grounded in material experimentation and a deeply rooted sense of place. Designers are reimagining heritage techniques and using materiality to tell personal, quiet, and poetic stories. In a crowded cultural landscape, The A/P Room stands out through its curation and by championing this dialogue, positioning the Middle East as an essential contributor to the global conversation on collectible design.

Al Wasl takes place inside Paul Andreu’s historic private terminal — a bold contextual choice. What dialogue were you hoping to spark between this modernist architecture and the works you selected?

Christelle Bassila: Al Wasl was conceived as a dialogue between place, history, and design. Paul Andreu’s private terminal, a modernist landmark inaugurated in the early 1980s offered the perfect setting to explore this connection. Its 22-metre transit corridor, once a passage for movement and anticipation, became a curatorial spine that allowed us to reflect on design as a form of continuity. By placing works from the 1960s to 1980s within Andreu’s architecture, we wanted to spark a conversation between eras: how the gestures of a building, the materials of a chair, or the sculptural language of a contemporary object can speak to one another across time. The terminal becomes not just a venue, but an active participant in the exhibition, a frame through which to consider design as an evolving cultural archive.

The exhibition is structured as a passage between eras, from “Chairs of Departure” to “Transits of Form.” What curatorial idea connects these two movements?

Christelle Bassila: Both chapters are united by the concept of connection, the very meaning of “Al Wasl.” The exhibition begins with Chairs of Departure, transforming the terminal’s corridor into a runway of modernity. Here, iconic chairs from the 1960s to the 1980s – from Joaquim Tenreiro’s Brazilian craftsmanship to Philippe Starck’s postmodern expression – chart a story of design as a marker of cultural and technological change.

This journey then expands into Transits of Form, which examines how design continues to evolve through material, architecture, and gesture. The presentation brings together global voices, including Zaha Hadid, Ron Arad, Andrea Branzi, Rogan Gregory, Faye Toogood, Jorge Zalszupin, Wendell Castle, Georges Jouve, Jane Yang D’Haene, Choi Byung-Hoon and others alongside regional talents such as Roham Shamekh ,Aline Hazarian, Sayar & Garibeh and Georges Mohasseb.

Together, these movements form a single narrative, design as a continuum. They connect past and present, regional and international perspectives, ultimately transforming Andreu’s terminal into a living archive and underscoring Abu Dhabi’s growing role as a global hub for cultural exchange.

With more than 30 international and regional designers, the show creates a rare cross-cultural conversation. What relationships or contrasts were most important for you to reveal between global masters and regional voices?

Christelle Bassila: The A/P Room was curated as a dialogue of energies rather than a geographic map. I wasn’t interested in placing designers in regional boxes, but in letting forms, gestures, materials and emotional resonance guide the conversation. The intention was not to contrast global masters with regional voices, but to reveal the continuities that run between them, instinctive organicity, material mastery, and the universal desire to shape emotion through form.

Presenting international and regional designers together is, for me, an act of positioning. It asserts that the Middle East is not operating on the margins of the design world, but at its centre of gravity. When regional talents appear alongside established names, it expands the narrative, it demonstrates that they are contributing to the same global discourse on craft, innovation, and the evolution of material language.

For The A/P Room, this alignment is also a statement of purpose anchoring their work within the wider landscape of collectible design, not as an exception, but as an equal voice shaping the future of the field.

How would you describe its current size and maturity, and where do you see the most significant momentum?

Elie Khouri: The Middle East is at a very exciting point of transformation and cultural awakening. Over the past decade, we’ve seen tremendous growth in cultural literacy, museums, foundations, design fairs, and private collectors are all contributing to an ecosystem that simply didn’t exist at this scale before. Collectible design is still a young market here, but it’s maturing fast, driven by a new generation of culturally curious collectors who are looking far beyond decoration. They want provenance, ideas, history, and innovation.

We’re seeing collectors who are not just acquiring pieces, but actively shaping dialogues with designers and engaging with design as an evolving form of cultural expression. The demand is there, the infrastructure is what needs to grow, and that’s exactly the gap The A/P Room aims to fill. Collectors in the Middle East are becoming more discerning and design-literate.

What are today’s collectors searching for, and how do you intend to cultivate the next generation?

Elie Khouri: Today’s collectors in the region are increasingly drawn not only to rarity and craftsmanship, but to the ideas embedded within objects. They want to understand the designer’s process, the historical lineage, and the cultural relevance of a piece. While mid-century and vintage design hold appeal, we’re seeing a definite shift toward contemporary voices, pieces that speak to the present moment and reflect the energy of the region today.

Cultivating the next generation begins with exposure. The more people encounter collectible design, in exhibitions, fairs, editorial platforms, and digital spaces the more they understand its value. This is why education sits at the core of The A/P Room. We want to make collectible design accessible, not by simplifying it, but by contextualising it, showing how a Branzi speaks to a Scarpa, or how regional designers are in dialogue with global movements. When people see design as a cultural language, they begin collecting with confidence and curiosity.

With permanent spaces opening in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 2026, what long-term role do you envision The A/P Room playing in shaping the region’s collectible design ecosystem?

Elie Khouri: Our role is to build a bridge, between past and present, between regional talent and global audiences, and between collectors and the cultural narratives that give objects meaning. The A/P Room is designed to be more than a gallery. We see it as a curatorial platform that expands the region’s design dialogue.

Long-term, we want to contribute to a stronger, more confident design ecosystem in the Middle East. That means supporting local designers, bringing important international voices to the region, collaborating with institutions, and creating spaces where ideas can circulate freely. If we can help shape a new cultural vocabulary around design, one that reflects the Middle East’s ambition, and creativity, then The A/P Room will have achieved its purpose.