Alula: The AlUla Design Award announced the winners of its Product Design and Fashion Design categories as part of the fourth edition of the award ceremony, held during the AlUla Arts Festival, with the participation of leading designers, cultural figures, and members of the creative community. The ceremony celebrated contemporary design as an outcome of material intelligence, craftsmanship, and deep engagement with place.
According to Saudi Press Agency, the ceremony was held in AlJadidah Arts District within the 'Material Witness: Celebrating Design From Within' program and exhibition, which presents design as a living cultural practice grounded in research and experimentation rather than purely aesthetic expression.
The AlUla Design Award is a core pillar of AlUla's design ecosystem developed by Arts AlUla, aiming to empower designers to engage with the governorate's cultural and natural environment.
In its fourth edition, the award continued its open call to designers from around the world in celebration of the Year of Handicrafts, under the theme 'The Ingenuity of the Human Hand,' highlighting traditional crafts, creative skill, and material-led thinking as key drivers of contemporary design.
The open call attracted submissions from 31 nationalities, reflecting the award's growing international presence and reinforcing AlUla's position as an emerging destination of increasing interest to the global design community.
Product designer Abdulrahman Al Muftah of Qatar won the Product Design Award for his project 'Bird Whistle,' a series of handcrafted clay whistles designed to replicate the sounds of native bird species in AlUla. Each piece was individually handmade and carefully acoustically tuned, reflecting a connection to traditional craftsmanship and the region's biodiversity.
Fashion designer Matthieu Gautier of France won the Fashion Design Award for his project 'Monumental Miniature,' a wearable work inspired by the carved sandstone tombs at the historic site of Hegra. The piece embodies a balance between digital precision and hand finishing, reflecting the relationship between landscape, the body, and adornment.
The winners were announced within the framework of the 'Material Witness: Celebrating Design From Within' exhibition, which brings together the AlUla Design Award, the AlUla Artist Residency - Design Edition, AlUla Designathon, and Madrasat Addeera as an integrated network of creative initiatives aimed at developing a design ecosystem rooted in research and cultural production.
Throughout the exhibition and accompanying public sessions, designers engaged with materials central to AlUla's environment-such as clay, palm, stone, metal, textiles, and pigments-as living elements shaped by climate, labor, and time. This approach presents design as a place-responsive practice grounded in local knowledge while remaining open to global creative dialogue.
Director of Arts and Creative Industries at the Royal Commission for AlUla Hamad AlHomeidan said: 'The AlUla Design Award represents a strategic platform within our long-term vision to position AlUla as a global destination for culture, design, and creative exchange. It supports research- and material-led practices and strengthens the role of design in cultural sustainability, tourism development, and shaping the governorate's future identity.'
The winning projects, along with 10 shortlisted finalists, are on display as part of the 'Material Witness: Celebrating Design From Within' exhibition at Design Space AlUla, offering visitors an opportunity to explore design through sensory experience and direct engagement with the details of handmade work.