FROMM.LAB OPENS ITS FIRST INTERNATIONAL DESIGN COMPETITION
FROMM.Lab’s First International Design Competition invites designers to reinterpret Arab heritage for today’s global audiences. Under the theme ‘Design for a Changing World: Bridging Cultures,’ the competition seeks functional prototypes that reveal the richness and diversity of Arab culture through a contemporary lens. Participants can submit original concepts across four product categories — seating, tables, storage, and lighting — merging craftsmanship with modern design sensibilities.
‘Design has the power to connect cultures and ideas,’ says Alia Rachid, Founder & CEO of FROMM. ‘This competition is an opportunity for creatives to explore heritage in a contemporary context. Through mentorship and international exposure, we aim to support the next generation in shaping a design language that’s rooted, relevant, and forward-looking.’
Alia Rachid, Founder & CEO of FROMM. | all images courtesy of FROMM.
A PLATFORM CONNECTING HERITAGE AND CONTEMPORARY DESIGN
FROMM.Lab is the educational platform of luxury design house FROMM., with roots in Msheireb Downtown Doha and a showroom in Milan. The initiative is committed to cross-cultural collaboration and heritage-informed innovation, providing opportunities for new voices in design to flourish. The competition reflects FROMM.’s long-standing mission to operate at the intersection of tradition and modernity, craftsmanship and experimentation. It encourages the creation of objects that are poetic and practical, local and universal, opening a dialogue between past and present while shaping the design language of the future.
from left to right: Giulio Cappellini, Joseph Grima, Alia Rachid, Fahad Al Obaidly, Dan Thawley
MENTORSHIP, PROTOTYPING, AND GLOBAL EXPOSURE FOR FINALISTS
Entries are expected to integrate stories, materials, and symbols from Arab heritage into designs that speak to a global audience. Selected finalists will benefit from mentorship provided by an international team of experts, including Giulio Cappellini, founder of Cappellini; Joseph Grima, architect and creative director of Design Academy Eindhoven; Aline Asmar d’Amman, architect and founder of Culture in Architecture Paris, Luca Fois, professor of Product Design at Politecnico di Milano, who leads the FROMM.Lab team and Fahad Al Obaidly, Acting Director of Design Doha as judge.
The finalist projects will be prototyped and produced under the FROMM. brand with full technical and material support. These designs will gain international media visibility and will be exhibited within FROMM.Collections at the Design Doha Biennale in April 2026. Through this exposure, the finalists will have the chance to present their vision to curators, collectors, and cultural leaders on a global stage.
Registration for the competition is open until June 15th, 2025.