DESERT BY DESIGN is a UAEU-led annual architecture and urbanism competition that advances architectural identity, climate-responsive design and desert urbanism through real cultural and environmental contexts. The Al Ain 2026 Edition asks participants to engage with one of the UAE’s most layered desert-oasis contexts and to imagine how contemporary design can extend its identity responsibly.
Read MoreAl Ain is shaped by the relationship between desert climate, oasis ecology, archaeological memory, cultural continuity and modern urban growth. Its identity is found in fortifications and heritage structures, but also in palm groves, falaj logic, shaded routes, courtyards, thresholds, landscape edges and daily social practices.
