📍 Dhahran – BETH | 23 November 2025

At the closing of the eighth edition of “Tanween”, the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) – an Aramco initiative – announced the launch of “Ithra Design Week” as the new identity of the program beginning in 2026. The shift marks a transformative moment in the evolution of design in the Kingdom, extending Tanween’s legacy into a broader temporal and spatial experience.

The announcement follows eight years of Tanween, during which the program grew into a major incubator for designers, ideas, and new modes of expression. “Tanween 2025” unfolded across six days featuring:

7 hands-on workshops

10 dialogue sessions

8 exhibitions

A four-track design hackathon
alongside public programs and guided tours co-developed with Khobar Municipality, connecting visitors to public art, architecture, and urban spaces shaped by design.

“Ithra Design Week 2026”… A Wider Vision and an Expanded Identity

The new Design Week will unfold across Ithra’s entire ecosystem — the museum, library, cinema, Idea Lab, and public spaces in the Eastern Province — transforming design into a living experience that moves beyond the building’s walls.

Noura Al-Zamil, Program Manager at Ithra, described the new week as the product of eight years of accumulated knowledge and creative experimentation.
She stated:
“Ithra Design Week does not start from zero — it is built on eight years of Tanween. It is a strategic step aligned with the creative economy, expanding designer participation, and elevating innovation on the global design map.”
She added:
“In 2026, we will read the needs, seize the opportunities, bring the future forward, and shape what comes next.”

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

During the closing ceremony, Ithra announced the winners of this year’s Tanween Challenges, aimed at addressing the most urgent human needs. The results were:

🏆 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 will continue developing the winning prototypes to form foundational pillars of the first edition of Ithra Design Week 2026.

Eight Years… A Timeline of Creative Awareness

Since its first edition, Tanween has introduced annual themes that challenge assumptions and push the boundaries of creative thinking:
Disruption – Play – The New Next – Tools – Collaboration – Range – Falling Up – Design the Unseen.

These themes formed a creative timeline tracing the evolution of design in Saudi Arabia and redefining the relationship between audiences, experimentation, and the rediscovery of design as a lens for understanding — before being a craft.

This accumulated journey now paves the road toward a much larger leap: Ithra Design Week.

Growing Local and Global Partnerships

This year’s Tanween witnessed broad participation from local and international partners, including:

Gulf International Bank (strategic partner)

Architecture and Design Commission

Retal Company

Al Majdouie (logistics partner)

Alongside major global design partnerships such as:
Dubai Design Week – Isola Global – and other international creative partners.

These collaborations position Ithra as a leading global platform for arts, creativity, and design.

Ithra… Where Design Becomes the Language of the Future

As Tanween concludes, it leaves behind a legacy of projects, ideas, and relationships built over eight transformative years — a living fabric that now prepares the ground for Ithra Design Week 2026, an expanded platform built on the belief that:

Design is not a shape… but a way of living.
A language of the future.
A tool to build more human cities…
and societies capable of deeper innovation.