The institut du monde arabe (IMA) has announced the winners of the IMA Design Award 2026, recognising projects that engage with design, craftsmanship, heritage and environmental impact across the Arab world.
In the Emerging Talent category, artist Aseel Alamoudi was awarded for Playformation (2025), which addresses challenges specific to the Arab region while highlighting the potential of emerging design practices. The installation considers how design can respond to local social and environmental conditions, drawing on the natural seams and curves of AlUla’s rock formations in Saudi Arabia to create open-ended forms that can be used for both rest and play.
The Contemporary Craftsmanship award went to the design studio founded by the duo Altin (Yasmine and Mehdi) for Our AlUla Trilogy (2025), a sculpture that reinterprets traditional craftsmanship through a contemporary lens by drawing on AlUla’s material and craft heritage.
Foukhar Studio by Christopher Ghoussoub received the Impact Award – Arab Bank Switzerland for Foukhar Beit Chabeb – Revitalizing a Village Craft Economy (2026), recognised for its social, environmental and economic impact. The project revitalises local pottery production in Beit Chabeb in Lebanon, connecting the preservation of the village’s craft heritage with social and economic development.
The Grand Prix, which is awarded to an architect or designer with more than 10 years of professional experience, was presented to Studio Salima Naji for the Tiznit Heritage Interpretation Center (2013–24). Based in southern Morocco since 2008, Naji has developed a practice centred on the preservation of local architectural heritage and traditional building knowledge.
The Jury Prize was awarded to Sahel AlHiyari. The recognition follows a career spanning several decades, including his selection as the first architect for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in 2002.
Palestinian artist Areen Hassan received the Audience Award for Weaving the Land Back (2025), where she uses weaving to examine relationships between land, heritage and the communities connected to them, following an online public voting campaign.
As part of the awards, one winner will also receive an artist residency from Les Manufactures nationales.
The fourth edition was judged by a jury presided over by Egyptian architect Shahira Fahmy Sheikha Reem Al-Thani, Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, Mette Degn-Christensen, Daniele Gerkens, Frédéric Imbert, Editor-in-Chief of Canvas, Ali Y Khadra, Michèle Maria Chaya, Arnaud Morand, Aidan Imanova, Memia Taktak and Samer Yamani.
Founded in 2023, the IMA Design Award continues the Institut du monde arabe’s commitment to recognising emerging and established designers from across the Arab world while bringing greater attention to contemporary design practices from the region.
