D3 Urban Commissions

Launched in 2014, Urban Commissions is a local design competition backed by D3 Dubai Design District and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority. Designers living and working in the United Arab Emirates are welcome to submit a proposal set to enliven the growing design district. This past year, the competition sought-out ideas for a public shelter; a functional, social and community-building meeting point. Among three finalists vying for a 50,000 AED budget to realise their concepts, Architects Atef Khedhir and Zyed Ben Cheikh proposed an angular lattice-structure pavilion reminiscent of sailboats. The cathedral-like enclosure played with interior and exterior space. Architect Fortune Penniman presented Take Shelter: a perched form, providing roof and bench in a single gesture, responding to the immediate backdrop of the Dubai Design District. Winning the competition, D3 Bike by American University of Sharjah student Hinjal Kumar combines a shift in lifestyle while still answering the brief of a shelter. With a double function of a shaded pavilion and bike stand, this design works with a twisting core including bike slates throughout its shell. This station is meant to inspire a new mode of transportation throughout the arising design district. “The shelter, Bike d3 was designed to initiate a change of lifestyle that caters to the creative growth of the city by providing mobility and enhancing networking within the urban fabric”, Kumar explained. “The concept evolved as a result of mapping and indexing public life in Dubai and doing a cross-comparison with urban cities like Paris, New York, Chicago and Copenhagen and associating the usage of bicycles across these cities.” The first prototype was installed and put into use during Design Days Dubai 2016.