We are challenging designers to find new ways of being inspired by AlUla.
The AlAjilah Special Edition is a new award category, where participants are asked to submit their reimagination of a camel cover.
Marrying heritage with innovative, forward-thinking aesthetics, we ask creatives to breathe new life into old techniques and explore materials, designs, and inspirations drawn from AlUla.
Providing context and a case study for designers to better understand the latest open call; the AlUla Design Award has simultaneously launched the AlAjilah Horse Design Challenge, rooted in the equestrian traditions of the land.
AlUla is one of the oldest cities in the Arabian Peninsula and is home to Hegra, a UNESCO World Heritage site. With 200,000 years of human activity amongst extraordinary desert, red rock and oasis landscapes, AlUla is a Living Museum where the ancient is in dialogue with the contemporary world.
AlUla tells the complex story of human settlement and civilisation through art and design. It ranges from prehistoric architecture upon the volcanic fields that continues to compel and confound archaeologists; the exquisite sculpture of ancient Arabian dynasties who made AlUla their capital; the monumental tomb with designs inspired by the Nabataeans’ ancient contemporaries in Rome, Egypt and Greece; and the mudbrick labyrinth of the Old Town decorated with the artwork of its inhabitants, and a harbor of memory and cultural identity for the people of AlUla.
These monuments are given context and story through their countless inscriptions, rock arts, intangible heritage, and traditional arts. AlUla truly is a Living Museum, gifting us insights into the art and culture of those who came before us, and reminding us that history is a continuum. From this cradle of creativity, AlUla is emerging as a rekindled crossroads of culture to become a sublime place to encounter the art of our time – bring the ancient in dialogue with the contemporary, and AlUla in dialogue with the world.
